When It Rains It Pours

They other day I sat in my desk chair at the office thinking to myself, "Why when it rains does it always pour, and why when the sun is out it's always shinning? Why can't it ever be a drizzle when it rains or be a little cloudy on a sunny day?"
Now I wasn't thinking about the literal rain and sunshine, but rather the metaphorical sense, like when bad things happen it seems like everything bad happens, or good things happen all at once.
The reason I was thinking about this was that I seem to having the worst couple of weeks, filled with drama, ridiculous amounts of school work, and physical problems; one of which included a friend singing "God help the Outcast" to me every few minutes.
As I sat thinking about everything that has occurred over the last two weeks was when this thought popped into my head. It seemed like life would be so much easier if everything didn't come at once, if things could just spread themselves out over a period of time.
As I sat there thinking about this I was reminded of one of my favorite books The Giver by Lois Lowry. This book, for those of you who haven't ever read it, is one of those futuristic societies where everything in in control, life is black and white, and there is no sadness or depression, but there is also no extreme happiness, everyone just is. When you start to feel sad you take a pill, when you enter puberty and start to have, what the book refers to as "sturrings", when you begin to have your sturrings you have to start taking a pill every morning to rid you of those feelings. There is a committee of Elders that watch you from birth to see what your interests are and when you turn 12 they place in training for your life long job.

I was reminded without those hard times there can be no great times! And then we would be stuck in a world of everything just being mediocre. Is that what I want?! Absolutely not! If we want those wonderful times we have to know what its like to have hard times. We learn and grow closer to the people around us and the Gospel when we have trials. Sometimes its hard, but its always worth it.
After I realized this I decided I wanted to have a better attitude about life. So starting today I'm going to try that. I was discussing this with a friend this morning and she said that she recently decided to do the same thing. She has a journal that she is trying to write in everyday, at least one thing she is grateful for. So I am going to follow her example. So here is my first day.
The number one thing I am grateful for are fantastic friends who stick by my husband and I no matter what. I have truly learned the people that I can lean on in hard times, and who my fair weather friends might be. I love them all, but am especially grateful for the ones who are always there.

And second of all today I am grateful for Disney. Their music, the firework shows, the theme parks! all of it!! This video is what helped me make it through today with a good attitude!