Count your blessings...often

Wow, Blogger changed its look...don't know if I like it yet or not. I'm not very technologically inclined, so once I get used to something I like it and find change hard sometimes, like the new facebook...HATE it, but that's life I suppose. Life changes...a lot. I was slapped in the face with a reality today, that I should be a LOT more grateful than I tend to be. An old friend of mine messaged me today to tell me he had been involved in a very bad car wreck, he is fine, but there was a fatality in the other vehicle, a young high school student, she was the passenger in the vehicle her mother was driving when her mother swerved to miss a rear-end collision in her lane on a small highway and crossed the center line resulting in a head on collision with my friend. Talk about a miracle that my dear friend is ok, I cant even begin to imagine what that mother must feel like, to know her actions to save herself and her child resulted in her daughters death. Immediately after hearing about this you know what I did? I called Daddy and Mom, that's right, I turned to my parents, the 2 people in the world that I know will always be there for me, no matter what. I had a wonderful conversation with them. Talked about how Mom isn't feeling the greatest, has a stomach bug. Talked about my siblings, how my sisters have decided to move in with each other for a little while, and about 2 of the greatest kids I know- my niece and nephew and how they got to spend a few days with Pap and Doh (my folks) and went to the marble festival, and rode the ferry across the Ohio river and how unimpressed a 6 year old can be while a 3 year old is simply fascinated.  Family has always meant a lot to me, which makes me wonder how I can forget to be so thankful.

Life in general has been pretty good for me lately. I quit a part time job that wasn't making me happy and in turn started a new one that I am still deciding about. I met an amazing guy when I had decided that I had more important things in life to worry about than dating. I might be 27 ( for a whole 12 days now...lol) but I have not had a lot of experience in the dating world.  I didn't date in high school, and my Junior year in college met a guy that I thought was IT, we dated for 3 years and turns out I was wrong. It never ceases to amaze me how people are put into our lives, some longer or shorter than others, for so many different reasons, for encouragement, support, advice, and sometimes for heartache or for us to make a bad decision so that when the right folks show up we can make the right decisions, to make those friends that last a lifetime.

Its realizations like these things that make you check in with yourself. Are you happy? Are you living life to the fullest? Are you taking life for granted? There have been several reasons lately to remind me to be thankful. Multiple friends diagnosed with cancer, a family member who had a cyst on his brain that had to be drained, a friend who can pick right up where things left off last time she saw you, 4 months ago, and another friend who can probably use a shoulder because she got her heartbroken on top of struggling through  a difficult school program so she can reach a goal in her life.

I definitely need to remember to count my blessings, and should probably do it more often, not just when a friend has a close call or a bad day....