STORIES OF BLESSINGS ON NOVEMBER 30, 2014, PART 3
TOPICS IN THIS BLOG POST:
1 BLESSINGS THOUGHTS AND TIPS
2 MY NANOWRIMO WRITING PROGRESS
3 ANOTHER PERSONAL REFLECTION OF 2014 AND MY LIFE OF BLESSING
4 THE BLESSING OF NOW
5 SOME OF MY 2014 BLESSINGS COUNTED LIST
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1 BLESSINGS THOUGHTS AND TIPS
Beware of busyness. It will blind you to your blessings. It gets your focus off of what really matters, your blessings.
Slow down at least, but even better, be still. It increases your chances of seeing your blessings so you can count them.
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2 MY NANOWRIMO WRITING PROGRESS
Written 2014-11-30 15:08:10, Sunday
So far, I have 48,552 words of 50,000 due today by eleven o'clock this evening.
I have a Denver Broncos versus the Kansas City Chiefs Game to watch tonight, but it is the late game and I hope to get this writing goal accomplished well before that time. Then, during the game, I plan on counting my blessings and writing them on my Blessings Counted List in my Penzu online journal.
I still cannot believe I have written 10,552 words or so since yesterday morning for the National Novel Writing Month of November 2014. Granted, I am not writing a novel, but am writing a non-fiction, but it is still a writing challenge and I have accomplished more than I imagined. I thought it was a long shot, but now realize that I can do this.
I can and will win NaNoWriMo for the first time since 2010. (Yay! High five.)
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3 ANOTHER PERSONAL REFLECTION OF 2014 AND MY LIFE OF BLESSING
Written 2014-11-30 15:12:58, Sunday
I have come to realize this year how much I have taken for granted and have overlooked.
BUSYNESS
Busyness tends to drown out everything in its path and it sure diminishes our reception of blessings. We are far more likely to miss our blessings if we are busy than when we are still.
Nothing good has ever come from busyness.
Few things in this life require our immediate response. So, quite being so busy and stop rushing. You will live a better quality of life, and one with more meaning, because you will slow down enough to see the blessings in your life and then you can count them.
I tend to fall into the busyness trap. The year of 2014 is more proof of this. Ugh. I should know better. This was a lesson I learned long ago. How many times am I going to have to learn it? And, how many times am I going to have to learn it the hard way?
Busyness is like traveling in a car and looking out the window. the faster we travel, the less we are able to see. Everything grows fuzzy. It is the same with busyness and blessings (and counting our blessings). The busier we are, the more fuzzy our blessings become and are easy to overlook.
GETTING SIDETRACKED
The year 2014, much like the previous six years, were years which marked one quality in my life, one habit, I must break. It is getting sidetracked for the next exciting thing. Getting sidetracked keeps my eyes and focus off of my blessings and puts them on other things.
Getting sidetracked shows inability to finish something.
It shows a lack of commitment.
It shows a lack of discipline.
This keeps happening with working out, the way I eat, my writing, and my counting my blessings. It is a cycle I keep repeating. It is a lesson I keep learning, but it hasn't stuck.
How many books have I written?
How many blogs have I had?
What I keep forgetting is how if I am not satisfied with what I have now, I will never be satisfied with anything. Because what I have now is already mine. If I don't claim them, I can lose them. If I don't find satisfaction in what I have now, I will not, and should not, be trusted with anything more. It si the same with the blessings in my life.
What I keep forgetting is this:
Counting my blessings will keep me from getting busy and from getting sidetracked. It will give me discipline and will show my commitment. It will help me to be content with what I have now. Counting my blessings is the answer to all of these problems and dilemmas. Counting my blessings is the answer--period.
Counting my blessings helps me to focus on what really matters--not on the superfluous stuff. It helps me to appreciate what I have now.
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4 THE BLESSING OF NOW
Written 2014-11-30 15:33:33, Sunday
Now.
Now is what I have.
I do not have anything more or anything less.
Now is what I have.
Now is what I possess. It is mine.
Everything and everyone I have now are part of my life today. They are now. And, now is a blessing.
How is now a blessing? Re-read everything I just read. That is the answer.
If I do not see now as a blessing, then I do not have the capacity to appreciate anything else. For, the now is in my possession and is mine--now and int he present.
What do we teach children? They are to value and take care of their possessions. This is a lesson taught early.
So, why is it that we do not value and take care of our possession of now?
Why do we overlook the now?
Why do we take it for granted?
Why do we fill the now with so many meaningless and shallow things?
How is it we have gotten this so wrong?
How is it we want more? We think more is the answer. We do not stop and see how if we do not appreciate the now, then we cannot appreciate the more or the future. The now is what we already possess and if we do not have the skill to appreciate the now, we also do not have the skill set to appreciate the more or the future.
The now is how we can build our skill set of living a life of gratitude versus a life of ingratitude. The now is when we can learn to slow down and not be so busy. The now is where we can learn the discipline to not get sidetracked and finish what we start. The now is our greatest advantage.
In the now, we should survey all of the abundant blessings we have in our lives. This alone should be our priority. Counting our blessings forces us to live in the now and appreciate what brought us to this point and what we have in our lives and possession today.
Let us face it. Life can change as fast as a snap of our fingers. If we do not appreciate the now, and haven't fully lived in the now, then we are not fully equipped to handle what is to come. We do not have the skill set to do so.
So, develop your skill set of counting your blessings now so you can appreciate what you have now.
Count your blessings today. Appreciate your life as it is. Develop this skill. And, review your blessings from time to time so your blessings can multiply. and, count someone else's blessings and the blessings they bring your life.
Counting our blessings of the now prepares us to receive a multiplication of blessings in the future. if we do not collect the blessings of the now, our blessings will not multiply because we overlook them or take them for granted.
Count your blessings of the now. It is sacred.
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5 SOME OF MY 2014 BLESSINGS COUNTED LIST
Written 2014-11-30 15:46:24, Sunday
Every year is a year of blessing. I may have missed the blessings or may have overlooked them, but it still does not change the fact that every year is a year of blessing. The year 2014 is no exception.
While it has been a tough year, it has been one of blessing.
I cannot believe all of the lessons I have learned this year. Many have been through the storms and challenges of life, but many have also been because I kept my eyes open at times and searched for the blessings to count.
I am thankful for answers.
I am thankful for events that have stretched me, challenged me, and forced me to look at things differently and make choices I never in my life would have thought I would have to make.
I am grateful for the feral cat who adopted my husband and I. Lady Kara has been a true blessing.
I am thankful, or so grateful, for my deeper commitment to journal (prayer journal) and keep every journaling entry in my online journal.
I am grateful for direction. What was once so foggy and murky has started to clear and my husband and I can see the journey we are to take.
I am grateful for learning, though it was the hard way, how critical it is to count my blessings, be a Blessings Counter, and live a life of gratitude instead a life of ingratitude.
I am blessed to learn that counting my blessings is a lifestyle and is a way of life.
I am blessed to count as many blessings as I have in November.
I am also blessed because I think I just wrote over 50,000 words and think I just won NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) for my blog turned book: "STORIES OF BLESSING: A BOOK OF GRATITUDE AND THANKSGIVING."
Above all, I am blessed to have grown so much in my faith this year.
To the Blessings Giver be all glory, honor, and praise.
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