Weekly Gratitude Linky, 2013-12-13

First, I feel I must apologise. To the friends who have had to put up with my whining (you know who you are; please don't delete me from your phone just yet!) and to everyone who read my awful, whiney post yesterday. (I'm not even linking to it; it's that bad).

This week I had the pleasure of meeting a good friend for coffee. Meeting a friend for coffee (when they're a good friend and you have lots to talk about) is always guaranteed to brighten my day. This friend is a particularly positive being, who was telling me about how he's tried his best to keep his children away from certain negative influences in their lives; he doesn't want them around negative people. I told him that he was pretty much like Pollyanna, but without the hair. There's always a bright side, things are never as bad as they look, he's always bloody positive. It's infuriating! I've only once known him to be at all negative, and then that only seems to have lasted all of an evening before he was back to his bright chipper self.

I, on the other hand, am prone to misery and self-pity. I can find the cloud for every silver lining. I hate it. (more negativity!) I am hoping that by using things like this weekly gratitude post, I can make myself a little more positive, a little more Pollyanna, a little more irritating to the rest of you. Because actually, if you focus on what you have to be happy about, the other crap doesn't seem so significant.

This week, I am grateful for:

• the fact that although S was very poorly, she was not nearly as poorly as some of her friends from nursery, who apparently ended up having to go to hospital. She has almost completely recovered and is sleeping well again (I am oh so thankful for the sleep part!)
• the smiles I have had that have brightened my days even when I was intent on being down in the dumps
• the Wednesday morning wander around the shops with S, which was thoroughly delightful because we had nowhere we needed to be, nothing we needed to do, and a whole morning in which to not do it.
• my fabulous friends, who all rally round and support me even when I don't ask for it. I never ask for it because I hate to be a burden; they offer, and I am learning to accept.
• my past which, although sometimes painful and difficult, has made me into who I am. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and I should probably be invincible by now. 

Now it's your turn! What are you thankful for this week?

Please link up any post about gratitude, positivity, what you are thankful for, whatever.

The only rule is that it has to be positive.  Then you can go and visit any other post that's linked up and know it's probably going to brighten your day.