GO FOR GRATITUDE...CAN'T HURT, MIGHT HELP

It is 5:00 AM, my feet hit the floor, my mouth is flapping, and it is saying, "It is the weather...the cold, the never ending frigid mass of grey icy air that has descended upon my head, sunk into my heart, fallen down to my gut and is freezing my toes right now this very minute, and I am sick of it, sick to death and beyond...enough, enough, enough! You got the power, God...use it already!"

At 6:00 AM, in my God Calling, I read: "...as self, and fears and worries depart out of your lives, it follows that things of the Spirit, that you crave so, rush in to take their places." (I note specifically "self" leads "fears and worries." They are written as if equal...self and fears and worries. Self first. On reflection, of course self is first. My self is never not first.) 

I remember when I first heard of writing out a gratitude list. "List everything you have to be grateful for," I was told. "Starting with the roof over your head."

You can believe I resisted that. My thinking was I SHOULD have a roof over my head, food to eat, water to drink...actually I prefer Diet Pepsi, if you don't mind? I thought a gratitude list was for the extras...the found money, the won car, the rich man, none of which seemed to be coming my way, speaking of unfair.

When I discovered that all I had to do was change my mind and my world would be brighter, I would be happier...I would be happy!...a new me was born. And I got this gift of a changed mind from the IRS! My dealings with the IRS have become my proof-positive that God is alive and well in my life...and, no, God did not pay the IRS for me. He changed my mind about my dealings with the IRS.

As God so cleverly put it, "Get happy or get drunk." I got happy, and I found the IRS to be an angel in my life. I believe that to this day...and that was thirty years ago.

So what the hey...if the IRS can be an angel in my life so can this miserable, ugly, frigid weather. I'm working on believing that.

Thank you.