A Little Gratitude

Some days all it takes is a little gratitude to change your perspective.

Take yesterday for example.

I ran for a wide shot in tennis, hit it back, started shuffling back to the center of the court but didn't look where I was going and tripped over a ball (side note here, during matches I'm always careful to keep balls off the court, but just hitting I don't normally mind balls around, I'm used to that).

In slow motion (because that's always what happens) I fell, landed directly on my knees then stopped the rest of my body with my hands.

Ouch. Let's just say that it hurt and if you've ever fallen on a hard court you know what I'm talking about. Really, I felt stupid more than anything else, though, and if you've ever fallen while hitting you know what I mean.

But anyway.. I kept playing ('cause that's what you do unless you're truly truly injured). I figured my knees would ache a little bit, but be fine in an hour or two.

Well, an hour or two later they were puffed up and bruising and it hurt to move at all. When I got home, I thought I would get off my feet for a few minutes and rest my painful knees.

Then Lisi started throwing up. Everywhere.

Have you ever tried to get on your hands and knees to clean your floor when just pushing on your knee with a finger makes you want to jump through the roof?

So you can know that I'm not being a complete whimp, here's my left knee...

And the right one...Kierst says they look like blueberries...
So, anyway, I was feeling a little sorry for myself after trudging painfully up and down the stairs all afternoon. During this pity party my mom's lesson of gratitude hit me like a brick:

Be grateful for what you have.

It could have been a lot worse, only having bruised knees was a blessing, (albeit a painful one), I could have sprained an ankle or foot or worse, cracked a bone and then we would have been at the ER when Lisi threw up and how awful would that have been?

Lesson for the day: a little gratitude can go a long way.