In our most recent Living Room show, Awaken Your Soul With Gratitude, I shared a brief version of this story that took place about seven years ago:

We were in the midst of yet another family crisis, and I was delivering the younger children to a friend's house so I could go home and deal with the aftermath. I tried to explain, as calmly and gently as possible, why I was dropping them off at a friend's house instead of heading home for Sunday dinner, and our nine-year-old spouted off this classic: "Out of all the people in the world, why us?"

Nobody wants to feel singled out in a crisis. We grapple to make sense of it all: Where did we go wrong? What did we do (or not do) to deserve this? I wanted to pat his little head and say, I know, baby. I'm feeling pretty dumped on right now too. It would have been easy to start wallowing in a pity party about why we didn't deserve some of the tough stuff we'd been recently dealt. I turned his question over and over again in my mind as I turned the corner to our friend's house.

Then suddenly, on the way home, I turned it completely around. I realized that the same question could apply to how extraordinarily blessed we are: "Out of all the people in the world, why us?" Why, out of so many more deserving souls, have we been singled out for so many tender mercies and miracles? I created a mental checklist of blessing after blessing, and suddenly felt more cared for than dumped on. Blessings, large and small, ongoing and surprisingly sudden, abound in our lives: The right people in the right place at the right time, all the time. People suddenly inspired, out of the blue, to check in with us. Access to resources we never would have considered. And those are just the obvious ones. But in some ways even huger are the less-obvious ones: Health. Strength. Healing. Guidance. Inspiration. Peace.

Gratitude helps me through the dark times. Every time.

#fromthelivingroomwithJana

   Jana Winters Parkin is an artist, writer, teacher, and adjunct art professor at UVU. She and her husband have 3 kids and 2 dogs, and she spends every day possible rejuvenating her soul in Utah's glorious mountains.