Have you ever met someone who had worse luck than the kid you grew up with who's mom made him tuck his shirt into his gym shorts every day for school? I have, and man has he had a rough couple of months. Among other things, he's been a victim of a hit and run, had his car damaged by the people who fixed it after the hit and run, had his dog run away and had his couch torn to shreds by his other dog- all in the span of just a couple of months. It's as if life just isn't going well for him lately, and I honestly feel really bad for the guy; however, his perspective on the whole thing has really changed my heart toward this kind of bad luck.
As someone who recently hasn't had the best of luck himself, I've gotten to watch this guy go from one rough circumstance to another with about as positive as an attitude as one can have when stuff goes as wrong as it has for him. Heck, even just today he displayed a great deal of patience as he was running late to meet me for coffee because He almost ran out of gas on the way there. After he finally got to the coffee shop, he walked by me, set his books down gently, smiled at me and said, 'I'm good. I promise.' And somehow, the genuine look and patience on his face made me believe him, while I know that if I had been in the same situation, I would've been anxious, overwhelmed and probably kind of angry.
As we got to talking about his morning thus far, as well as all the other instances of 'bad luck' we'd both been having lately, we both took some time to reflect on what had been going on in our lives. After we'd finished up, he said something really interesting to me after I'd asked him what he was thinking about. In a short, simple way, he just said, "Sometimes, I think we're just blind to our blessings."
I don't think he could've been more right.
It's easy to, in the middle of 'bad luck,' look at all the negatives in life and miss all the positives. It's easy to look past all the normal, 'good things' in life that we so often look past as blessings because their normal and even easier to see the rare occasions of bad luck as hell on earth. We react terrible when something throws a hiccup in our day to day routine, yet we're quick to forget to give thanks for all the things that go right.
In the midst of 'bad luck,' look at the good luck that the day has brought. Don't be blind to your blessings, but be thankful you're free to live, free to breathe and have free access to lay beneath trees that provide shade on those beautiful, sunny days.
-Cliff
Cliff's Note: Don't be blind to your blessings.