“A
good
life
is
when
you
smile
often,
dream
big,
laugh
a
lot
and
realize
how
blessed
you
are
for
what
you
have.”
-unknown
This month of October is always such a special month for me. We get to travel to Utah and see our dear family and attend General Conference. We are invited to many meetings following the Conference with the Presiding Bishopric. we were able to listen to numerous talks that were given by extraordinary men and women on different subjects. One of my favorites was a talk by elder Nelson “Joy and spiritual survival.” And the other one was by our dear friend, Elder Cornish: “Am I good enough? Will I make it? During this special month we also attended Joseph’s baptism and Elder Vinas farewell. He is now emeritus and living in Spain. His favorite phrase was “sufrir con gozo” suffer with joy. He and his wife will be celebrating 50 years together and are enduring to the end he said. Afterwards, I was privileged to go to El Salvador for Paola’s mission farewell and to witness when she was set apart on Monday. The next morning, we took her to the airport. The people in Brazil will be so blessed to have her there. I was particularly thankful for the time I spent with my mom and sister Liz and her family too.
Right after I got home Two Saturdays ago, we went to a special meeting with the Area Seventies on Sunday October 16th, our anniversary. We were very concerned and prayed together kneeling down for mercy on the people here in the Philippines as a big typhoon was on its way. There was so much power in that meeting and the prayer given by Elder Bowen was from his heart. He is such a good man. What a blessing it was to be there that day to have experienced a collective prayer for the elements to not cause harm. The following day we were off to the director’s seminar where Daniel presided. He instructed his directors of those things we had learned earlier by the presiding Bishopric.
As I have reviewed the past 7 years we have been married, I have made some discoveries. One is that countless experiences I have had were incredibly spiritual like those we had this month but for the most part many have not been extraordinary. In fact, at the time they transpired, they often seemed unremarkable and even ordinary. And yet, in retrospect, they enriched and blessed our lives—going to see doctors is one of them. Daniel saw his dermatologist and that was a good thing because he had another spot on his shoulder that seemed cancerous and needed removal.
Taking an inventory of all the blessings we have received is going to be my next project. I would recommend this same exercise to you—namely, that you take an inventory of your life and look specifically for the blessings, large and small, you have received.” Even at times when things don’t seem to be going our way, they actually are! Just give it some more time!! I am going to get a notebook and I am going to find a quiet place to sit and start writing down all of the blessings that I can think of. I am going to write them in a list, in no particular order, just listing everything that I can think of as it comes to my mind in this notebook. I am going to try and start in chronological order, but if something comes to me out of the blue then I will write it down, even if it is out of order. My goal is to literally flood the pages with the lists of blessings I can recall. I want to capture all of them, even the smallest blessing of finding something I have lost after saying a prayer, to meeting certain people, to having certain opportunities, to the miracles that I have had come into my life. I am really excited to start this exercise this week.
My
mind has already begun racing with memories even just in my planning to write it down this week. It is amazing the things I have begun to notice were blessings when I first decided to start thinking about it. Once I finish my list with every memory I can possibly think of, I am going to keep the notebook by my bed so as new blessings happen in my life I can remember to add them to my list. I have a feeling that keeping this little book by my bed to look at on the difficult days that come will help me to keep things in perspective. It will help to remind me that my life truly is blessed and that even though things may get difficult, there is still plenty to be grateful for. Smile today, dream big, laugh a lot, and realize you are so blessed! It is going to be a great day!
I hope some of you would want to try this experiment too. And when you finish it, maybe take some of the most meaningful items from the lists and make little notecards that you can write one on each card and tape it to a mirror at home, or put them somewhere that you can view so they can give you a pick me up to help you stay grateful and focused on all of life’s blessings. Life truly is a blessing. I stand in awe at the many blessings I have been given over the years: my family, my friends, my life lessons…so much to be grateful for and so many more blessings still to come.
Con amor,
Vero
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