I’m grateful for the things I wasn’t grateful for via /r/gratitude

So many times in my life, I’ve been screwed over, had my heart broken, been injured or sick, lost something, left something, said something that I regretted…

But here I am. Grateful. Grateful for the shit jobs and mental illness that made the rat-race impossible and forced me to forge my own path, even though that led to homelessness for a while. Grateful for the “friends” who taught me who was worth my time. Grateful for the heartbreak that taught me how to love and how to leave, and led me to finding the love of my life. Grateful for the literally traumatizing experiences from living in Hawaii, because I would have lived my life thinking I missed out because I didn’t try.

All of this has taught me that judging my experiences and labeling them as good or bad is just a short-sighted waste of time because the story never ends. The good can’t exist without the bad. I don’t think either really exists in the grand scheme of things… life just is. But on a personal, subjective level… you have to have both, and they change based on context. Perspective, time, etc.

Thank you for inspiring me to reflect on this today. Hope you’re all having a peaceful, blissful, magical day, even if it doesn’t seem like it.