#Gratitude Challenge Day 5

This is a 14-day gratitude challenge. You can read more about it here: Personal Excellence.

Day 5: Identify 3 Things to Appreciate about Your Adversary

This is a very hard one for me. One adversary is at the forefront of my mind, but I can't think of anything that I can appreciate about this person. Should I appreciate the hate that has grown in my heart because of this person? No. Should I appreciate the fact that they have proven my thought that it isn't safe to trust most people? No. Should I appreciate the fact that they have made me feel even more that I'll never be good enough? No. Because of this person, there is a huge, maybe irreparable rift between me and someone that is very important to me. I feel like this adversary has made me only an option to someone that I see as a priority.

A safer adversary would be my health issues. While the future implications of COPD scare me to death, it has forced me to slow down. By slowing down, I am able to notice things that maybe I wouldn't have noticed before. The nature of this disease has me trying to forget it exists, so I am trying to focus my mind on other things to avoid thinking about it. Because of this, I am learning about new things and getting a lot more reading done. It makes me appreciate the breathing that I am able to do now because I know that it won't always be as easy as it is at this moment. I am trying to learn how to live in the moment, one breath at a time. It has also given me a sense of urgency where my writing and genealogy research are concerned. I want to get it in a tangible format before I can no longer do this and even more stories would be lost.

Daily Journaling: Three Things I am Grateful for Today:

1. I am thankful for air conditioning that helps me to breathe easier.

2. I am thankful for hot showers that help ease the tension built up throughout the day.

Broken Computer clipart
from Clker.com

3. I am thankful for backups of files from old, no longer working computers.