"Count Your Blessings"

 Hello!

One of my favorite holiday movies' is White Christmas  with Bing Crosby. Mostly, this is thanks to my mom. Her father loved Bing Crosby so she carried that love over and shared it with me. 

There are a lot of songs in that movie, but one of them has stuck with me. Or rather the refrain has:

"When I'm worried and I can't sleep

I count my blessings instead of sheep

And I fall asleep counting my blessings"

Too often, I worry. It's a human thing. We all do it. But when I worry, I tend to tunnel inward. To bury myself. If it's strong enough, the worry turns into anxiety and if it's very bad, it turns into a full-blown panic attack.

 You see, if I worry, then I'm looking at myself to fix my problems, which I can't. When my focus isn't on God and is on myself, I spiral, and all I can think about are my misfortunes. Things look worse than they probably are. 

Instead of worrying, something that I can do is to count my blessings. To list things that I am thankful for. It balances my fears and anxieties out and shows me that not everything around me is terrible. There are good things too. 

And that's what we want when we're worried. Right? To know know that everything is alright. To feel safe. Maybe what we need to is a mind shift. To look at our blessings instead of the terrible things that could happen or even are happening. Not to be naive, but to balance things out. 

I'm going to pull another quote out. This time from The Lord of the Rings, but I feel that it's appropriate. A reminder to me, and perhaps to you, that even when things seem dark, there is still good if you look for it.

“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

-The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

Even in our darkest times, there is still reasons to give thanks. They may be buried so deep that you cannot be sure they are there, but they are. During those times, you may need a friend to help you unearth those memories, but they are there and they are worth remembering.

Count your blessings. They deserve to be remembered more than your anxieties.

Until next time...

Julia Garcia / Arysta Henry