Delight in the Beauty that Surrounds You

Delight in the beauty that surrounds you.

...Did you read that? Did you pay attention?

Delight in the beauty that surrounds you.

...How often do you actually think that type of positive thought? Be honest. I'm not judging.

Delight in the beauty that surrounds you.

Ok lovelies. I've come to a conclusion. Nothing groundbreaking here, but something that many of us don't want to acknowledge or admit. Or change, for that matter. Holy crap is it really, really, really easy to complain! It's almost like our brains have been hard wired to go straight to the negative and bypass the happy lane altogether. Isn't that kind of....sad?

Of course, I'm not speaking for everyone, but for most this tends to be true. Within the last week I have encountered the "trifecta" as I'm calling it. The trifecta has made this fact blaringly obvious to me and appears to be challenging me. Let me rewind a bit...

Part I

Last Thursday, after an evening of fine dining and entertaining in the theater I had an amazing epiphany. Ok fine, let’s be real here. Fine dining was tacos and my entertainment consisted of a vodka/ginger ale and Greys Anatomy. I finish pumping (every mom’s favorite part of the day) and drink my delicious cocktail while my 11 month going on 20 year old child sleeps happily. I'm watching Greys Anatomy and skimming Pinterest. Life is good, my friends. While I’m skimming I stumble upon this, a few times actually. It appears to be pretty popular.

Shit! A whole day? 24 whole hours? I don’t see myself as a huge complainer to begin with but when I vent, I really like to get it out there. Like, let it alllllll out there. And I most certainly have specific topics that take me from calm as a cucumber to pissed as a pickle in two seconds flat. I’ve worked to find the silver lining in situations that surround me but it’s a work in progress. Plus now it’s hot outside and the house is a mess. You all know how it is. you live it every day just like I do. The thought of not complaining for an entire day just seems…hard. Not impossible but not easy. I tuck the thought in the back of my brain and go to sleep. I’ll think about it later.

Part II

Fast forward to Saturday. I’m a member of a wonderful church community who has recently started a MOMs ministry, getting moms children of all ages together for a night out once a month to connect through faith and chat; to kind of hit the “reset” button on anything that needs it. The moms are wonderful. Saturday morning is a mini retreat where we will hang out for a few hours and focus on gratitude.

We listen to a few speakers and share through prayer and ideas and then, wait for it… we start talking about how easy it is to complain and not show our gratitude instead. We even have a graphic organizer guide us through listing some negative thoughts that might pop up and how we can reframe them into positive thoughts. Now, here I am, teacher turned stay at home mom. I’m out of the house dressed nicely, given mimosas, and now a graphic organizer? *swoon*

Back to Saturday. I immediately thought of the image I saw on Pinterest. Go 24 hours without complaining. Here I am reframing thoughts from negative to positive at a gratitude retreat. I was considering doing this before but now I really felt like Bill Engvall just showed up and said “Courtney, here’s your sign!”

Part III

Fast forward once again to Wednesday evening. I’m saying goodnight to Dave and glance at the pretty black and white picture that hangs on my side of the bed. The caption, in tiny font at the bottom, reads “Delight in the Beauty that Surrounds You.” Beauty surrounds me? My bed is covered in laundry that has not been folded because my daughter has taken on running instead of walking. Beauty surrounds me? I just stepped in spit up that literally had a goldfish still intact (the snack cracker, don’t worry). 3 different ways of sending me the same message all within the week. Maybe it’s something I need right now. Beauty surrounds me? 24 hours complaint free?

Challenge accepted.

XOXO