Advice for My Daughter

Tag: gratitude

  • Talk About What You Love, Not What You Hate

    Talk About What You Love, Not What You Hate

    I was scrolling through my Facebook page today and I noticed how frequently people talk about what they hate.

    Ugh. It’s so hot out!

    The (fill in any baseball team) are the WORST!

    (fill in any political candidate) is insane.

    It took 78 minutes to get into work today! The (fill in any local expressway) is horrible.

    And on.

    And on.

    And on.

    None of these status updates make the world a better place to live and none of them will change the way things are. But there is a better way to think…a better way to live.

    Rather than focusing on the things you hate, speak about the things you love:

    Fall is coming. I love sweatshirt weather!

    The (fill in any baseball team) are awesome!

    (fill in any political candidate) is brilliant.

    It took 78 minutes to get into work today! I got to listen to almost two full podcasts!

    Life is how we perceive it and others view you by your positivity or negativity. Why not focus on the positive?

    Nobody wants to hear about your endless complaints. Really, they don’t.

    Grandma always said, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” I still mostly agree with that. If you have something nice to say, say it loud and proud. If you have to provide constructive criticism, do with good intentions. If you have something mean, critical or judgmental to say, it’s probably best not to say it, unless you are offering a solution. Every complaint must also come with a solution.

    Be a force of positive in the world. Be the light in someone’s day. Be the person who never has a bad word to say about anyone. That doesn’t mean that you love everything about everyone…just that you know that it won’t help anyone to scream it across Facebook.

     

  • The Little Things That Take My Breath Away

    The Little Things That Take My Breath Away

    Once upon a time, there was a man and a woman who dreamt of having a child. There were days when it seemed that it would never happen, but they kept hoping and praying that one day, they would hear cries in the middle of the night…cries for them.

    And one day…they did.

    And I still can’t believe that you are real. That you are my child. That you call me mommy.

    But you do. It’s real.

    So, I want you to know how grateful I am and how my breath catches by some of the littlest things. I am a mom to a little girl and these are the things I treasure:

    • Little yellow rain boots by the back door
    • Crumbs in the back seat of the car
    • Monster High stickers on my coffee table
    • Rocks in my purse
    • A refrigerator covered in drawings
    • Saturday mornings when I don’t get to sleep in
    • Katy Perry blasting in the car
    • Rocks on the kitchen table
    • A chair for one, that now squeezes in two
    • Spontaneous dance parties
    • Weekly trips to the library, loaded down with books
    • Long blonde hair in my hairbrush
    • Knock Knock jokes that don’t make sense
    • Rocks next to my bed
    • A bathroom cabinet filled with cotton balls and leaves for the fairies
    • Chalk on the sidewalk
    • Cartoons on the TV
    • Chasing down the ice cream truck
    • Kisses that work like medicine
    • The tiny toothbrush next to the sink
    • Glitter….everywhere
    • Smiles that change with new teeth
    • The endless stream of “mommy…mommy…mommy”

    When you are wishing for a child, it’s these little things that you dream of. Many of these “annoying” things are the greatest gifts I could ever imagine.

    For my birthday last year, my husband bought me my first Prada bag. It is now filled with rocks, colorful band-aids, and sugar packets.

    And I couldn’t be happier.

     

    Image by Rob MacEwen