The Pursuit of Thankfulness

Chris & I watched The Pursuit of Happyness with some friends on Friday, and I have been thinking about it ever since. I have seen it several times (in fact, we own it), and I just love that there is a sweet-but-not-sappy [true] story out there of a father who is devoted to his son-- who is honest and loving and affectionate, and who sacrifices everything he has to follow a dream & provide for his boy. It's beautiful.

But that's not why I have been thinking about it.

I have been thinking about it because we're broke. At least, we think we're broke. Our cars are definitely "broke".

Our paychecks have been short (like Danny DeVito short), and we are going to have to take some time off from our campuses and work on fund-raising again. Both of our cars are in need of various degrees of repair (we can't drive one of them right now), and we have already shelled out hundreds of dollars on repairing them in the last month. It's a bummer.

It's easy to look around at the lives that my friends lead and feel sorry for myself. They go out to dinner, and buy new clothes for themselves, and go on vacation, and drink wine that's not Two Buck Chuck... Chris told me a few days ago that we couldn't buy groceries for the rest of the month. I was shocked & frightnened-- and then I realized that "the rest of the month" meant Thursday!

When I watched The Pursuit of Happyness, I realized just how much we have. It's ridiculous to feel sorry for myself. I am well fed (a little too well fed lately!), I get plenty of sleep at night (again, a little too much lately!). We have an incredibly comfortable, warm bed to sleep in at night, and we never have to wonder if it will be there for us when we get home. We have family & friends who love us, and we would never, never have to end up on the streets. We have beautiful things-- furniture, and clothes, and "toys", and a kitchen full of stuff. In fact, our little apartment can barely hold all of our junk. I think that's a pretty good sign that we have too much!

I could go on & on listing the things in my life that I can be grateful for. I probably should. I think that gratitude is the key to happiness & contentment. It is something I need to develop more of.