10 Things To Be Grateful For When Life is Hard

Life is hard sometimes, you know?  Sometimes it’s messy and downright ugly, which is why the beautiful stuff is so great when it shows up. But sometimes the beautiful stuff takes an awful long time to get to your door, and when that happens, you have to make your own beauty. Which I think is the very best kind.

I’ve been pretty sick lately.  In fact, as I write this, I’m in my pajamas, wearing a foxy orthopedic wrist brace.  I’ve been horizontal a lot, lying in bed, feeling a lot of sadness about this broken body of mine.  It gets overwhelming sometimes.

As I was recovering in bed this morning after a terrifyingly painful and debilitating migraine last night, I felt powerless to accomplish all the things I want to do, never mind the things I need to do.  But as I thought about it, I realized how awesome my life really is, and how important it is to get perspective and be grateful when things just flat out suck.  So I’d like to share my list of things to be grateful for when things are hard.

10 Things To Be Grateful For When Life is Hard

1. Washing Machines

All I have to do is pop dirty clothes into the washer, wait an hour, pop the cleaned clothes into the dryer, wait another hour, then pull the fluffy clean, warm clothes out and put them away.  Marvelous.

2.  Clean Water

A lot of people in the world spend a lot of time trying to access water.  Not clean water, not hot water, just water.  With the twist of a knob, I have clean water available to me any time of the day or night, from multiple faucets across my house.

3.  Hot Showers

Clean water leads to hot showers, of course. I never take a hot shower I’m not grateful for.  Think about it: I get to bathe whenever I want with clean, piping hot water, in the privacy of my own home.  Like magic, I tell you.

4.  Kindles

I have access to thousands of books any time I want, and can carry all of them around at the same time on a device lighter than most paperback novels. You guys, the future is awesome!

5.  Transportation

I have a car.  My very own, personal car.  I can use it whenever I want, to do whatever I want, at any time of the day.  Think about that for a minute, because it’s pretty remarkable.

6.  Good Jobs

I have a pretty phenomenal job, thanks to you.  I get to do what I love, I’m my own boss, and can give myself a break when I need it.  I have flexibility and can work from anywhere in the world or at home in my pajamas.

7.  Families

I’m married to my very favorite person and have two really cool, smart, kind children.  I get to live with my three best people, all the time.

8.  Music

Music is one of the very happiest things in my life.  I get to listen to my daughter sing while she plays her guitar at night.  I get to listen while this cute girl teaches my husband to sing and play the ukulele.  I have access to Spotify and any kind of music I could ever want from all sorts of devices 24/7.

9.  Mobile Phones

I have access to a world of information and technology, from a supercomputer I hold in my hand.  See also: the future is awesome.

10.  Medical Care

Doctors, nurses, medicine, access to medical information, hospitals, research.

There’s my gratitude list!  So if you’re ever struggling and you need to borrow something to be grateful for, you’re welcome to borrow from mine.  And be kind to yourself, you’re doing a really good job.

Allison

Hello there! I'm Allison Czarnecki, founder + editor of Petit Elefant, a blog all about style on a budget for every part of your life: style / home / travel / family. I do a lot of how-to beauty + style tutorials, travel posts, easy recipes, home remodel projects, and cool DIY crafts you totally want to try. I'm super happily married (to a hot Polish immigrant) and am the mother of two kids, a daughter and son, all of whom are featured here on the regular. We live in the country but we're a little bit rock + roll. Welcome!