PEGGY's LIST

So I was doing research on a certain topic on the LDS WEBSITE and each time I typed the particular words into the search engine, to help me find the inspiration I was looking for, this same little story from The Friend Magazine kept coming up.

Harold's list, in it's own right, is so very profound yet it is oozing with sugary, gooey white bread and warm milk churchy goodness (wow, how many adjectives can I squeeze into one analogy!?) For a full read go HERE to check out the story, but if you'd rather not, I will give you the best darn Cliff Notes version I can.

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Everything BAD happens to Harold. Think "The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" type plot line. Finally when he thinks that it just can't get any worse, he slips and falls on his backpack, smushing his lunch and dousing his book report with the contents of his juice box. Mr Grumpy then walks into class in a huff and when approached by his teacher, lists all of the horrible things that ALWAYS happen to him. In her attempt to teach him a valuable lesson, she asks him to write a list of EVERYTHING that happens to him that day-- the good and the bad. AND... just like in every J-Lo Rom-Com movie, you can see right where this little story is headed. You guessed it, Harold becomes aware that good things DO happen- he just wasn't looking at it from that perspective. TA-DAH! End scene.

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Anyhoo, as you can tell by the fact that I am posting about this, our little story got me thinking about my own perspectives and whether they lead me to looking for the Amazing or the Crappy things in my life. Gotta be pretty honest, I can sometimes be a "down in the dumps" kind of girl. It's true. If I were to put my grumpy glasses on and look back at the past 3 years of my life, I would bore you to tears with all the bad things that have happened to me-- you may even think that I am making half of it up.

BUT

As I have been looking at my life these last few days, and let me tell you I have room to complain here, I have actually found myself being overwhelmed by how much I DO have. I can't stop looking at all my blessings. I can't stop seeing how lucky I am, how amazing my friends and family are, how truly spectacular my life is.

Yes, I don't have a job and I have been tirelessly looking for quite some time now. True, I no longer have a boyfriend (and I am missing him like crazy these days). Who knows how long it will be before I am finally a wife and mother. Yes, these things are stressful and rather painful and hard. But oh my holy heck and stuff... I HAVE SO MUCH.

Harold has inspired me. I haven't written down an actual list, but I have definitely been taking mental note of the many things in my life that make it so good to be alive. Just even by choosing to look at things this way I feel a million miles away from the trouble that seems to loom over my head. I feel empowered that my life is going to be great, that just around the corner are ALL the many blessings I have been praying and fasting for and they're going to smack me in the face.

And you know what? Between you, me and Harold, at the end of this life I'm going to have one MAJOR ROCKSTATIC LIST!

So Today's challenge is to sluff off the grumpy and make a list. Okay, okay I won't pretend to ask you to actually write it down, stick it on your mirror and do a morning mantra to it or anything, but for anyone that is out there, struggling with the world around them-- make your Harold list... DO IT! I defy you to not feel like One Million Dollars at the end of the day!