{"id":1979,"date":"2012-12-05T00:58:19","date_gmt":"2012-12-05T06:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/?p=1979"},"modified":"2012-12-05T00:59:04","modified_gmt":"2012-12-05T06:59:04","slug":"when-you-look-at-a-field-of-dandelions-you-can-either-see-a-hundred-weeds-or-a-hundred-wishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/when-you-look-at-a-field-of-dandelions-you-can-either-see-a-hundred-weeds-or-a-hundred-wishes\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhen you look at a field of dandelions you can either see a hundred weeds or a hundred wishes.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s interesting how quickly life can be put into proper perspective.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As you know from yesterday\u2019s blog we have been dealing with our daughter Ashley\u2019s injury this week.\u00a0 As a quick update, today we went to the physical therapist and they said they think she will be ready to have surgery on her knee before Christmas, which will be a blessing so that she can recover over the holiday without missing too much more school. \u00a0So fingers crossed on that. When we finished her appointment she had to do her leg exercises that are necessary to prepare her leg for surgery.\u00a0 The exercises were painful for her and she was frustrated at her body\u2019s lack of ability to do the things it can normally do.\u00a0 Watching her struggle with it broke my heart as I know how difficult this experience is for her.\u00a0 But I watched her push through it and I am really proud of her for how well she is handling all of this.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What happened next really brought this latest challenge we are facing crashing into perspective. I sat down to read my emails that came in today and the first one I opened was an email letting me know that the father of a girl Ashley\u2019s age in our area we live had died suddenly at the age of 55 while doing his morning workout yesterday.\u00a0 We were stunned. \u00a0He seemed to be in perfect health and they were such a darling family.\u00a0 All we could think about was how devastating this was for this family.\u00a0 How difficult to lose a father and husband at such a young age. \u00a0We couldn\u2019t even imagine the pain they are going through tonight.\u00a0\u00a0 Our prayers go out to this family and the heartbreak they must be going through.<\/p>\n

And just like that, our trials were put into proper perspective.\u00a0 As difficult as the challenge and injury Ashley is facing, things could be so much more difficult.\u00a0 We are blessed that she is healthy in every way and that everyone in our family is alive and well.\u00a0 We are blessed that we have good support and a strong faith to see us through tough times.\u00a0 Yes, there are challenges to be overcome right now and in no way do I want to minimize the fact that Ashley is going to have a difficult road to recovery ahead and sad loss of the sport she loves, because all of that is difficult and challenging and Ashley should be praised for handling this challenge with grace and courage.\u00a0 But there is no question that when we look at this challenge with this new reminder of keeping a proper perspective, our family felt blessed indeed for the positive things that we have in our lives.\u00a0 And we feel grateful that things are not worse than the challenges we have.<\/p>\n

Things can always be worse, and there is always someone else facing more difficult circumstances than we are facing. And as hard as it is to remember that when we are feeling down, if we can keep that perspective in mind I believe that it can truly help us to turn our feelings from sadness to gratitude quickly.\u00a0 Today we began our day looking at the field of dandelions and seeing a hundred weeds in Ashley\u2019s circumstances, but after reading that email tonight about this father\u2019s death, we looked our same field of dandelions and saw them as a hundred wishes, and we realized how lucky we are.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t our own circumstances that had changed in any way; it was simply that things were put into proper perspective and we were looking it things differently now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Seeing things differently and in proper perspective is an ability of that each of us has to use at any time that we choose.\u00a0 Hopefully I will get to a point in my own life that use that ability daily rather than needing external reminders to put me back in the right frame of mind.\u00a0 Life is far more beautiful when we see those dandelions for the beauty they hold.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Have a great Wednesday everyone!\u00a0 And may your day be full of gratitude and hope and a hundred wishes!<\/p>\n

~Amy<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Life is Beautiful and so is Ashley! Keep Smiling!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s interesting how quickly life can be put into proper perspective.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As you know from yesterday\u2019s blog we have been dealing with our daughter Ashley\u2019s injury this week.\u00a0 As a quick update, today we went to the physical therapist and they said they think she will be ready to have surgery on her knee before Christmas, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[168,46,280,134,153,281],"class_list":["post-1979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adversity","tag-attitude","tag-challenges","tag-perspective","tag-positive","tag-trials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1979"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1991,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979\/revisions\/1991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}