Happy Secret Challenge: Day 8

** Today is a sad day.  A lone gunman chose to enter an elementary school and kill 20 children and 6 adults.  As millions and millions of people try to grasp and understand what makes a person murder innocent children... try to understand the horror that these young children faced... try imagine the anguish that parents felt as they waited to hear if their child was among those lost... we grieve.  We mourn.  We hold our children a little tighter.  Say an extra prayer for people who live miles and miles and miles away.  

I'm not going to paint some beautiful picture of hope, of a lesson to be learned from this.  Because I can't.  I won't.  Life sometimes sucks.  People do horrible things.  Tragedies happen.  But life is sometimes wonderful.  People do fantastic things.  And miracles.  They can happen too. **

I am creating/participating in a Happy Secret Challenge inspired by a TED video I recently watched.  

I've made it one week, and my goal for the next 14 days is to write three gratitudes and to journal/write about one positive experience from the day.  The gratitudes can be trivial or deep.  And even on the toughest of days there is at least ONE thing that is positive or goes well.  

Gratitude: thankfulness, gratefulness or appreciation; 

a feeling or attitude in recognition of a benefit that someone has received.

Positive:  favorable, good, approving, enthusiastic, supportive, encouraging

The goal is to retrain your brain to begin to look for the positives instead of the negatives.  There are other pieces to the challenge as well but for today we start with these two:

Three Gratitudes:

22. I'm grateful for the people who work to keep our country and its' citizens safe.

23. I'm thankful for the courageous children who were 

so brave on what was an unimaginably scary day.

24. I appreciate the gift of life.

I am grateful.

One Positive From The Last 24 Hours:

There are 25 more stars in the sky tonight and we may never find answers.  There really is nothing that can make what happened in Connecticut better but I have to keep telling myself that so many more people could have been hurt.  That so many children were so very brave.  That teachers and staff put their students' lives above their own.  More kids were not hurt.  We are a nation that comes together, that supports one another, that grieves together.  We are strong.  Even on our weakest day.

"Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day." 

-Author Unknown

Many things in life can wait... but The Sunset Won't!