A while ago, I watched the movie “Million Dollar Baby”…it was a waste of 2 hours! It is about a boxer who hurts her spine & can’t move anymore from her neck down–but at least she could move her head & talk! Yet she just killed herself! (I was so disappointed, & thought, “she got a movie for that???) I understand the desire to die & how hard that 1st year is, but it DOES get better! So this post is to anyone out there who is recently injured, or just had a stroke:

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints general conference this weekend, Dieter F Uchtdorf gave a talk ( https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/grateful-in-any-circumstances?lang=eng&media=video#watch=video ) about gratitude that was exactly what occurred for me. Let me explain: I’d always been an avid journal writer pre-stroke, so when I could finally use the computer again, i started keeping my journal again. I was miserable that 1st year after my stroke, so it was no surprise that one of my 1st entries took forever to type the simple words “i want to die!”

As i got stronger, my entries got longer, & one time i was listing all the reasons why i hated things post-stroke. My sweet husband, mk, saw my list, & encouraged me to instead make a list of what i was grateful for. i thought he was nuts!, & i asked, “what do i have to be grateful for?” he told me that for starters, i was alive! but i wasn’t grateful (then) that i WAS alive, so it took me years to have the courage to start that list, & a while longer before I could say I was grateful to still be alive…the poor boxer girl in the movie didn’t have anyone like mk 2 help her change her thinking, but when I made the choice to set aside bitterness & be happy no matter what, as the talk by Dieter F Uchtdorf teaches, gratitude helped me see my blessings & change my attitude, as my hope, faith, & testimony in God grew. I will be eternally thankful to my husband for this simple suggestion, as it changed EVERYTHING for me. & since not everyone has “a mk”, I wanted to pass it on, since I know how much it helped me!

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1

“Gracias, danke, merci whatever language is spoken, ‘thank you’ frequently expressed will cheer your spirit, broaden your friendships, and lift your lives to a higher pathway as you journey toward perfection. There is a simplicity even a sincerity when ‘thank you’ is spoken.”

–Thomas S. Monson, “The Profound Power of Gratitude,” Ensign, Sept. 2005, 3