40 days of being thankful: Day Nine

Bill Bryson said it about Durham, and now I'm saying it about soundcloud. Seriously, if you haven't been there, go at once!

Day Nine: Thankful to have discovered soundcloud.


Mrs O

x

40 days of being thankful: Day Eight

Today, we took Little Miss O to an art gallery. It's not just any art gallery - its one with the best food in town and one which I used to take her to every single week when she was younger. It was like a second religion for us. Baby girl was so excited to be going back and this time, we took Daddy (Mr O) along with us. He's never been before, he was always at work and he wondered why I raved about it so much.

Anyhow, we had planned to go with a couple of friends and their little ones, but at the last minute they told us that they couldn't make it. Little Miss O was disappointed that she wouldn't be seeing these little pals today but we went anyway. In the pouring rain, we arrived and ran into the gallery. I'm not sure who was more excited to be there  - I think it was a close call between us all. As soon as she had taken her shoes, coat and tights off, Little Miss O spotted 4 'friends' of hers and their parents - friends of ours. It made me realise that we are part of a little community here - the community of green-space seeking/gallery-visiting/bike/scooter-riding, raisins, bread-sticks and houmous eating-young families round here and it made us all feel good. Even though we like the anonymity of not living in our home towns (you know, where you can't leave the house without neighbour no. 1 telling you about what neighbour no2's aunty did last week), its nice sometimes - like today, to bump into familiar faces, you know, just by chance...

Day Eight: thankful for feeling part of a community

Mrs O
x

Day Seven - Why worry when you can pray!

Today has been a good day - a great day. The 'negativity' of last week is gone and I am very much enjoying my 3-day weekend! I was especially grateful for the message preached at church today. Our guest sermon was amazing. It was about prayer and how we don't wait until the fire before we run-through a fire drill... so why should be wait until everything goes wrong before humbling ourselves, opening our hearts and minds to the word of God in prayer. Why is it that we just assume we know how to 'pray'. Fine there is no right or wrong way, but surely there is nothing worse than feeling the need to 'pray' and not having a clue where to start. I don't want to be at that place, so I'm going to step up my prayer game! I think it fits in well with my 40 days of gratitude and positivity, so I'll probably use the time when I just 'think' or 'blog' about being grateful to pray instead. I'm still going to write on here what I am particularly positive about each day (33 left!), but I'd like to focus more of my energy into prayer and sharing this little exercise with God himself. I'm really enjoying this desire in me to connect with God and build my relationship with him. I am verging on the edge of 'Bible-bashing' now (which I generally don't like!), but I totally believe in what I am saying, so its hard not to... funny how things swing around!

A really poignant point made today at church was this:

When we're going through troubles, what should we do? Should we sing 'nobody know the troubles I've seen....' Heck no! Nobody knows your troubles? - Who cares! Seriously, this is what our guest pastor said. You really have to imagine this being relayed in a thick Nigerian accent. If you were there in church this morning, you'd be able to testify to how powerful it was when he said these next words...

'who cares about your troubles - everyone has their own! Why worry when you can pray!'

So simply, yet so powerful. Sure, there will still be times when I worry (I'm human after-all!), but imagine if every time I catch myself fretting about something or other, I just stop and pray. Imagine if all the energy I put into moaning, I put into prayer instead. This is such a revelation to me - much like last week's session about positivity and actively making things happen rather than just waiting for them to happen.

For these messages and for my church, I am truly thankful.

Today, I am also thankful for old friends, who make you smile - always. Even when you see them infrequently, you're able to carry on the conversation where you left off. I'm especially grateful for said old friends who congratulate me on losing the baby-weight (I have had 3 years to do so and to be fair, I didn't actually put on any weight!). It's nice to get a little recognition from time to time - for apparently 'not letting yourself go all bleugh!' lol. Charmed, I'm sure!

Much happiness, sunshine and light.

Mrs O
x