The Glad Game

(A story I'm excerpting from an inspirational email I've received recently from Simple Truths)

In her wonderful book, The Wealthy Spirit, Chellie Campbell describes how, when she was a girl, her mother taught her to play "The Glad Game." On days when Chellie came home from school complaining about something - a bully on the playground, a harsh teacher, a skinned knee, or difficult homework, Chellie's mom would hug her, kiss away her tears, and then suggest, "OK, enough complaining. Let's play 'The Glad Game.'"

The Glad Game is another name for a Gratitude List. The Glad Game helps you focus on what's right in your world today, instead of what's wrong. Chellie's mom was a very wise woman, teaching her that no matter what your troubles, there are still plenty of things to be grateful for: a sunny day, good food to eat, a loving family, a house to live in, a family pet to love, a handful of friends to enjoy, and much, much more.

Chellie would follow her mothers suggestion:

"I'm glad I have you as my mom."
"I'm glad the weekend is almost here."
"I'm glad I have some nice clothes to wear to school."
"I'm glad I don't have to share my room with my sister anymore."
"I'm glad I get to watch TV when I finish my homework."
"I'm glad we have pie for dessert."

Playing The Glad Game is a terrific way to change your attitude in a hurry. We all slip into self-pity once in awhile; after all, we're only human. The important thing is to cut the pity-party short and shift into gratitude. An attitude of gratitude will get you much farther in life than complaining and self-pity. Try it and see.

The movie you will see if you click on this link is one of many short chapters in Learning to Dance in the Rain...The Power of Gratitude.

Dancing in the rain isn't something that most of us are born knowing how to do. We learn it. We learn it from others; we learn it from Life. The more we dance, the better we get at it. My daughter Megan was proof of that as she grew up doing ballet for many years. With practice, dancing in the rain becomes almost automatic. We no longer seek to run from storms...instead, we toss back our heads, throw out our arms, pick up our feet, and DANCE! (Or in my case, we "try" to!)

Carole Anne and I just did another wonderful "dance of joy" about a half hour ago, when we received a note from a good friend that today the lost had been found: both of our main expensive winter coats (Carole Anne = fake seal fur, me = nice full length brown wool) were found hanging in an obscure closet in their home in Canberra where they had been hanging for a year and a half! Carole Anne had firmly concluded that I had somehow let them fall out of the car and onto the road during a move we'd made out of a 5-month rental in a Uniting Church parsonage in Duffy and into another place - almost six months after they got hung in that closet! She even definitely "remembered" packing them into that box when preparing for that move. Well, now I'm finally exhonerated -- yay!

That little serendipitous development, and also recently having recovered both our passports which were also lost for a very puzzling two months and "found" the hour before going to what would have been a much MORE expensive appointment at the US Consulate in Sydney to replace them...well, it sort of balances out having been caught up for the last two days in the exhausting fallout of another international cyber scam!

-Clair

P.S. If you liked that one, here are more "mini-movies" on a whole variety of themes, all freely available for your viewing pleasure on "the net." Several of them have picked me up when its pouring - and moved me to "dance in the rain."