It rained every single moment of our four day vacation this week.
Our expected views of the mountains were nearly non-existent, as a constant dense fog accompanied the torrential down poor. Opportunities to get out of our hotel and van were thwarted by the cold temperatures, as the rain normally wouldn’t have stopped us.
The extra money paid for the best views and best seats went to waist. The vacation time I saved all year was finally spent on a week of inconveniences and let downs.
Well, that is one way I can look at it! If it were still the first 27 years of my life, I would only dwell on all the negatives. Focusing on all that was taken or missing, I would have continued to mentally build a real sap case for how I sacrificed all this for my family with no real reward.
However, this is a new chapter of my life, where gratitude is a non-negotiable. Did I get the feelings of sadness, defeat and frustration? I sure did!
However, I know better than to allow them to stay with me. I have the intelligence and discipline to change my thoughts into something that makes me happy now.
It’s empowering knowing that I get to choose how I accept the stressor. This helps to control my stress response and allows me to get back to a Good Mood. It starts with gratitude!
Counting the blessings that are still there. My family is with me, alive and well. We have the funds to eat and travel. We have a working vehicle that accommodates our family. We have a lot of laughs and spend a ton of time talking while driving on these travels. We are not burdened by work distractions. We are just a family together in the moment. We have so much and we have each other.
Wow, I feel even better just rehashing that out in my mind and in this post!
This photo captured our very brief glimpse of the valley and distant mountains as our trip was coming to an end. The fog finally eased just enough to see, and the rain slowed to a drizzle. I pulled into a small overlook parking spot and jumped out of the van to snap this picture!
The point I am trying to express here; is that I didn’t need the views of the mountains to keep a pleasant VIEW! It was a choice!
I choose to be “too BLESSED to be Stressed”