Being thankful for the bad things

It’s November and people have filled my Facebook timeline with a daily dose of thankfulness.  I like it but haven’t participated.  Why?  I don’t know. I guess I didn’t want to bore people.  It’s not that I’m don’t appreciate the good stuff. I do. Very much so.  I just thought it would interesting to take a different look at this thankfulness trend.  You see, it’s easy to be thankful for the good things in your life.  What’s more difficult is to cherish the really crappy ones.

No, I haven’t lost my mind.

Let me give you example:  I’m very thankful I couldn’t find my dream job after college and ended up  as a nighttime custodian at Pope High School. That seemed like a horrible thing when it happened. But it was a job where I learned to appreciate hard work. How to use my talent. And it gave me the gift of cherishing all my jobs after it.  I also met great friends at Pope. One of those friends is Maggie Hurley.  She set me up with her daughter —  who is now my wife and mother of my three children.

I’m really thankful I had cancer.  No, I don’t want it again —  but it taught me to appreciate the sunrise and live in the moment.  It allowed me to be able to become an advocate for melanoma awareness. And it gave me some really cool scars.

I’m thankful for the Great Recession and a changing career.  The fear of losing my house busted me out of my comfort zone and taught me that I can do anything I put my mind to.  Having a door slam in my face caused me to look around for bigger and better doors.  I’ve found them and am hustling through them. My survival instinct is now firing on all cylinders.

I’m thankful for people who don’t believe in me. The motivation to prove them wrong is powerful and continues to propel me forward. It also has taught me whose opinion to value and who I should ignore.  I ignore many people now who would have driven me crazy three years ago.

I’m thankful for all the times I have failed. Apparently, I’m a better learner when I fall on my face. I think about when I was about to fail Accounting II in college.  I busted my butt and ended up passing the class.

I’m thankful for when I’m wronged. It has taught me the art of forgiveness and taught me valuable life lessons I couldn’t learn any other way.

I’m thankful for the bad moments in my marriage. They make me appreciate the good ones that much more.  The lessons I have learned have made me a better husband and father.

The one I struggle with is the loss of my brother-in-law Adam. I can’t be thankful for his death.  But I what I am thankful for is that my sister had him in her life. And I’m thankful for the example he set for me and my boys. His courage battling ALS will inspire me until the day I die.

So that’s it.  The bad moments have given me the opportunity to learn and grow.  And for that, I’m truly thankful.

What bad thing are you most thankful for?

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8 Responses to Being thankful for the bad things

  1. Laurie Craig says:

    What an awesome way to think about Thanksgiving! Brings tears to my eyes.

    I am thankful that I didnt get offered a job after a great internship in college. I got a better job and 3 months in Nashville with my sister because of it.

    I am also thankful for being fired a month after 9-11 after 6 1/2 years in a leadership role with a growing retailer. I got out of a work schedule I hated and found a great company to have spent the last 10 years with.

    Happy “thanks for giving me” whatever you find molds you most.

    Laurie

  2. Clucky says:

    I’m still working on this one. But you seem to excel when you jump from the frying pan into the fire.

  3. dhcoop says:

    EXCELLENT food for thought, Marshall!

  4. parrotmom says:

    I can say that the worst thing that happened in the past year did not make me happy. The loss of my spouse of 28 years. A freak accident that led to a surgery that went fine. Then two days later while still in the hospital everything that could go wrong did. Almost 5 months in a hospital facility then death. I did find I was blessed more than I could imagine. I still had time with him, god granted me that. Time to adjust to what the end was going to be. I still don’t know what my purpose is, but I know God is in charge. I have my sad moments, it’s not perfect. Thanksgiving was our favorite holiday and I still have reason to be thankful while being alone.

  5. Actually maybe we should remove this…. It was good for me to write it but it would hurt my dad’s feelings if he came across this somehow…

  6. Leah Marmo says:

    I’d rather be in a crappy job with hours I hated than had 9/11 happen, but whatever.

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