The Strength of Gratitude and More Yoda Quotes

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I don't know if it's me or the mechanism of Facebook or life or what, but over the last several years I have gained and lost quite a few people from my life. Some have actually unfriended or even blocked me, but many are still around on the fringes. I'm sure there are a million reasons why they've backed off, not all of them my "fault," but it still hurts.

It doesn't help that I have a tendency to wallow, to mentally list off who they are and where they went and wonder why. 

Wallowing is replaying the losses, and "the fear of loss is a path to the Dark Side."  I know that it weakens me. Now that I'm getting comfortable walking into strength, I'm learning to gratitude my way out of wallowing.

When I find myself focusing on what was, I'm learning to turn it around to be grateful for what is. 

Many of these people I love, though stepped back, are still here. We are not sharing our lives as we used to, but they are still part of my story, and I am still part of theirs. That's what I have for right now, and right now is where my heart needs to be. 

Dogwood Branches

Among the many trees on our property is an old, rather decrepit-looking dogwood. It has grown up in a grouping with some other plants and bushes, and due to the loss of several limbs, is quite lopsided. In fact, one limb is hanging down but got tangled up in lower branches before it completely broke off. Somehow the limb manages to have a couple of leaves on the side that is still connected to the tree. We've talked for a couple of years about removing the entire planting but it's been low on the priority list.
The remnants of Hurricane Ike came through Southern Illinois last weekend. Plenty of limbs were down throughout the yard, including one decent-sized limb off the old dogwood. What surprised me is that the limb on the ground wasn't the limb that had been hanging for so long. The limb that blew off in the wind had been higher up in the tree, leaning out on its own. I realized that while the partially-broken branch was not nearly as healthy as the other one, it was still connected to the tree because it was being held by lower branches.
When hurricanes come through my life, I pray that I remember these branches. If I'm trying to stick it out on my own, no matter how spiritually healthy I may be, I'm at great risk of being blown off the tree by the storm. On the other hand, while I may be a broken branch with few leaves to show, if I am held up by fellow branches, I will be much more likely to weather the storm and remain attached to the tree. Thank you, my darling friends and family, for being my branches.