Originally I was thinking about writing this article around Thanksgiving, but after Hurricane Irma and after seeing a lot of posts on my Facebook timeline from my fellow Floridians; I was inspired and figured that now should be the time. Often times we are so lost in what we want/need, and what we think we should have and deserve that we forget to appreciate what we have.

I used to say that every day is a blessing, but now I believe that it is more like every second. There is so much that I am grateful for that I can't even dare to count my blessings. One thing I realize is when something is a routine, we tend not to count it as a blessing anymore (at least for me), but we count the major events in our lives as one. Let's take a look at our daily lives, we wake up, we go to work/school/church/whatever it is that you do, we get to those places safe, then head back home, and make it home safe, then do whatever it is that you do later in the day, go to bed, wake up again, then do the same thing. Are you grateful for all of those small things that I listed and everything else that happens in between? Or are you more likely to say how blessed you are for the new job you got, the professional school you got into, the scholarship you got, the new car you bought, the house you bought, finding your ideal spouse, having your dream wedding, and so on?

Also, the people that we are closer to are the ones that we usually take for granted, but we praise outsiders that do what we consider big things for us. The people we should really praise are the one closer to us, that one friend you always call when you need anything or just a shoulder to cry on, your mom that always cooks, your dad that pays the rent, your husband who cuts the grass, your brother(in my case) that takes care of you when you are sick, your boyfriend that picks you up when your car won't start, etc. I could go on and on about the things and the people that we usually take for granted, but Hurricane Irma made me realize that we should be more grateful for them and life itself.

After the hurricane, what I saw on my timeline was mostly complaints about not having power or not having this and that rather than "oh man, I survived this." I know being outside of the box makes me think differently. I'm sure I probably would be complaining about something too if I was in Florida, but this was an eye-opener for me, and hopefully, it is for you too. If you were hit by the hurricane and you survived, be grateful for that. I know that a lot of people lose things that took them years to build and most of these things were dear to them. I'm not trying to say that it is okay, but as long as you are alive, have faith in a better tomorrow.

One of the things that I learned to be grateful for because of the hurricane is my phone because it took me hours to be able to communicate with my family back home (that was nerve-wracking), so from now on, I will be grateful for that. Think about your daily life, you will find plenty of blessings because first, you are alive. Try to do this everyday look for the 5 smallest things that happened during your day as your main blessings and every day, you will realize that you are more blessed than you imagined.

Also be grateful for the people that are around you and always show them that you care because you never know what tomorrow hold.

Xoxo,

DD