Clouds are beautiful

Yesterday, I was frustrated...about clouds.

I woke up early to get some shopping done and to stop at a delicious coffeeshop/bakery in Osseo, MN called Luna's Liquid Lava Lounge. It was proving to be a fantastic day, I was rather productive in the morning so I decided to go and relax at the Town Greene and read. Honestly I was just excited for some sun: I could get a little tan and soak in the beautiful rays all while reading great books. I sat down on one of the great lawn chairs out there and started reading and almost right away the sun went behind the clouds and it actually got rather cold. It was really frustrating because I wanted to be outside and relax like I used to last summer.

I ended up reading in the library and then going home. Later that afternoon I looked out a window and saw the sun was beaming down on my backyard and there did not seem to be many clouds in the sky. It was finally my chance to read in the sun, woo! I quickly grabbed my book and set up a chair in my backyard, took my shirt off to get some color and started reading. About 5 minutes later the largest cloud anyone has ever seen slowly crept in front of the sun. It got really cold but I decided to just wait it out and saw the cloud did have an end to it. The sun did end up shining on me again and the cloud went on it's way, unfortunately I only had about 10 pages of my book left.

Throughout the day I was thinking in the back of my mind that I love clouds but I was frustrated because today was the day I wanted to enjoy the sun. After I was done with my book (Love Does by Bob Goff) I started really thinking about what I was getting frustrated at. I was mad that it was a cloudy day because I wanted sun. I decided that I was thinking about life all wrong. We can't spend life being frustrated that things out of our control are not the exact way we want them to be. Honestly, I have always loved clouds because they are so pretty! I was texting my friend and mentioned that I almost missed how beautiful the clouds looked yesterday because I was not being grateful for what I was given and I really liked her response. She said "people often forget what we are given...if days were always sunny we would get bored and take them for granted." It is really that simple. How much would we treasure amazing things if we were given them whenever we wanted? What would be amazing about them anymore? When we are exposed to truly amazing things too often they become just ordinary.

I challenge anyone reading this to wake up tomorrow and focus on spending the day being grateful for what you are given. Really think about this. Also if there is something that you wish was different about that day, flip it around and think about what part of your day you would hate if it was not exactly how it is and BE GRATEFUL.

When we are grateful for every part of our day it forces us to smile even though clouds are blocking the sun. We smile because being grateful reminds us that honestly, clouds are beautiful.