In Keeping with Thanksgiving

A quick post on gratefulness.

This year for New Year's I decided to make only one resolution. Instead of "saving money " or "losing weight" I thought I'd attempt to just be GRATEFUL this year. Let me tell you this... sometimes it's hard to be grateful. And not for any profound reason other than because it's just so much easier to bitch about things than to say, "I'm grateful for this time" or "this moment" or "this sweet tea."

All in all, I feel I've done a pretty good job at being grateful. I celebrated five yeras at my job this month. This is a job I am no longer particulary fond of. What I am though, is grateful to be employed.

As I sat at work today for approxiamtely 12 hours to babysit about 25 people in a meeting room, I was a whiny biotch for almost all 12 hours. Anyone I texted or talked to on the phone got a "blah blah blah, I'm so bored." I was insufferable really.

As I often do on weekends at work, I started watching a documentary. Keep in mind that my job is to be here in case anything goes awry, or someone wants another chair in their room... I'm not a brain surgeon. Within 3 seconds of clicking on Harlan County USA, a documentary about a coal minint down in Kentucky, I saw mwn covered in coal dust (which is no good to human lungs) jump on a conveyer belt on thier bellies with thier lunch boxes tucked in front of them and I had a revelation.

I AM GRATEFUL FOR MY JOB.

My "bad day at work" consists of me sitting at a desk in a well lit office playing a computer all day. Not everyday is quite this easy, there was that pesky tornado that time. Would I rather be at home with my dogs, or hanging out with my friends, or helping my mom? Absolutely. But you know what? At no point today did I ride on my belly into a black hole filled with carcinogens and work for 8 or 10 or 12 hours.

My grandfather was that kind of man. He did everything from working in a coal mine to clearing train wrecks. I'm grateful for him too. Because of his hard work, my father was shown the correlation between working hard and providing for your family. In one generation my family went from a self sufficient shack on the face of a Kentucky to a daughter pursuing her Doctorate (my sister, not me... i'm grateful she likes higher education, it gives me something to brag about). My grandfather also taught us that hard work makes up for a multitude of short comings. He died nearly illiterate. I am grateful to have been taught that both hard work and education are important.

Will I still moan about my job? You betcha (thank you Sarah Palin)! But for this fleeting moment, I'll just be grateful and I'll make a little promise to try to do it more.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!