The Upside of the Downside

trying to find the good in any given situation.  Easier said than done, trust me, I know from experience.  But with all the changes in the air in our life over the last few years, I started feeling pretty discouraged and beat up by life.  And then I talked to someone who, unbeknownst to me, had been through some very similar circumstances and I was shocked to learn this.  She is one of those people with the picture perfect life, you can’t catch her on a bad day no matter how hard you try.  I commented to her on that, and she told me one day she just decided to challenge herself to find something, no matter how small, in every situation that she could count as “good”.

So, I’ve challenged myself to do the same.  Some days it’s a lot harder than others but on those days I always have my fallback:  My marriage is better than it was a year ago.  My children are happy and healthy.  We have a roof over our head and food in our bellies.  I don’t make light of some of the things that happen in life, where we’re tempted to say “Yeah great but this still sucks.”  I just know that no matter how bad my situation seems, it is still better than someone elses, and I’m determined to at least attempt to find the upside to the downside.