Thankful Thursdays!

There are so many things in this world to be THANKFUL for, but on this THANKFUL Thursday, I’m most THANKFUL for the things that didn’t happen.  Sometimes a closed door is a blessing in disguise and a preemptive strike preventing a future disaster.

I’m THANKFUL for life’s mishaps and mistakes.  Because of them, I learned not only who I am, but what I can endure and overcome.  I’m THANKFUL for lost – lost jobs, lost people, and lost love. Losing a job makes you appreciate what you have, but also prepares you.  It forces you to grow beyond your comfort zone and stretch beyond what you thought you were capable of.  It also make you resourceful and innovative; you learn to do more with less.  Losing people makes you cherish those you have.  Life is too valuable to take for granted, too precious not to appreciate, and too valuable to waste.  Losing those closest to you will ensure that you learn to appreciate them while you can.  … and the greatest of these is love.  Despite the emotional and mental, sometimes even physical, pain associated with losing love, I am still THANKFUL.  Losing love taught me what it was to genuinely feel, to love unconditionally, to put others before me, to be vulnerable, and most importantly, that nothing in this world beats giving.  Is it better to love and lose or never love at all?  It is always better to love and lose and to experience all that love is and can be.  I may have lost love, but what I discovered will make it that much greater when it returns.

So THANKFUL that I learned that when I do fall, I also know how to get back up.  THANKFUL that no matter how dire the situation may seem, it’s never as bad as it could have been.  THANKFUL that sometimes in order to succeed, you have to learn what it is to fail; how else would you measure your success or know what it truly felt like.  I’m THANKFUL that can I share my mistakes and my lost with all so that they too can know it is not the end, but the beginning.

What have you learned through lost?  How has failure or setbacks strengthened you and made you better?  Share your triumph and how you overcame here or @BrotherWord with the hashtag #Thankful2Lose.