waiting for trains

while checking out some blogs earlier today, a fellow blogger had some good words that i needed to be reminded of. her post talked about counting your blessings instead of complaining about your misfortune. lately i've found myself forgetting to count the blessings and have been more focused on complaining about life. i’ve realized that i really need to make an effort to dwell on the good things. i mean really, when i think about it, i have it pretty darn good. i have family and friends that love me, a forgiving God, and everything that i need to get by from day to day... and then some.
all of this reminds me of statement that was made in our college and career bible study a few years ago... "look for the blessings in the inconveniences". that statement stuck with me and it used to be my daily practice. when i'd get annoyed or frustrated i'd try to stop myself and think "is there a blessing in this", and even if i couldn't see it at the time, later in the day i'd say "yup, there was the blessing in disguise". the example i love to use for this is waiting for trains. most people hate waiting for trains. i on the other hand have come to love waiting for trains. the last apartment i lived in was "north of the tracks", and therefore i spent some time waiting for trains. it drove me nuts. until one day while waiting for a never ending train, i stopped myself and said “okay, Leanne, where’s the blessing in waiting for this train”. i was late for work (of course), and thought “whatever, there’s no way this could be good”. then i noticed the train graffiti. i love train graffiti. (i know it’s vandalism and all, but some of those dudes are amazing artists) i realized then that the train graffiti was my blessing for that moment. waiting for that train gave me a chance to catch my breath from my frantic rush to get to work and appreciate some very creative artwork. since then i have grown to love waiting for trains for this very reason. weird i know, but hey that’s how my brain works. and really what are you going to do about it, it’s not like you have a choice to wait for a train, you have to wait there, so make the best of it. right?