Tuesday, gratitude helps, you have made the difference

     Just a simple thought about blogging, especially about PF blogging,  gratitude helps.  Reading several blogs regularly and skipping around on a regular basis, I find that blogs that emphasis the good things in this journey are the ones that I will read.  Not that we all (or I) don't rant along the way, many times we just have bad days, weeks, lives in general, but I truly love the bloggers that are grateful for what they have.

     We have this wonderful community of people that know and understand the problems that many of us face.  Everyone's journey is different, but somehow all the same.  Many of the blogs I read are people who have no debt any more, some are trying to pay off just the mortgage.  (I am jealous of those bloggers)  But I still read them because they obviously have found the secret.

     I also have many blog buddies that are out of credit card debt but are still paying for cars and homes.  I am almost in this circle and I long to get here.  It will be a mile stone for me.  Now I have been here before several times back when I thought turning to a home equity loan was the answer.  Yes I was one of those people.  Did it help me? No usually I was right back where I had started in less than 2 years.  I remember so clearly 13 years ago, my parents sitting down with me at my kitchen table and paying off $28,000.00 worth of bills and I had to pay it back over a ten year period.  I did pay it back in less than ten years, but I also remember wanting them to go home so I could get to a phone and buy a new pair of Irish dance shoes for $135.00 with my newly paid off credit card.  In fact I was so flush I bought 2 pair!  Even though that loan was paid others were taken out.  Over and over the viscous cycle.

     I also have bloggers that are still deeply in CC debt and are making progress.  They live day to day making the minimum payments and trying to build an emergency fund.  They live in fear and trembling.  They are brave souls who go without many creature comforts in their struggle against the unknown. I have been here and I pray for you.  I read your stories and your set backs and your triumphs.  I am your biggest cheerleader and fan.

     Then there are the overwhelmed bloggers.  Desperately asking for help.  They plead, and are so behind.  Their debts have taken over their lives and they see no way out.  Some start to blog and they are very interesting but the old monster consumes them.  Soon they quit posting and you wonder what happened.  Was this journey just too much, was it too hard, was it too boring?

     But the one quality that I have found over the last year that makes a difference is gratitude.  Bloggers that are grateful for each other and the blessings they have in their lives do triumph over this thing called debt. Every day I am in awe of the freedom I am coming to experience with my debt melting away.  I am so happy and thankful.  I beleive that I and many of us get into, or got into debt because of ingratitude.  We just wanted more than we could afford.  We wanted things that other people had.  We wanted our children to have the best.  We desired things we could not pay for. Then when we were over our heads we cried fowl!  At least I did!  This wasn't my fault!  I needed those things.  I could justify every purchase.  But in reality it wasn't my kids, or my husband, or my health, or just plain bad luck, it was my ingratitude that got me where I was.

      So what I am trying to blather about here is let's just all be grateful.  It is the first day of Spring 2012!  In the old Svensk calendar this was the time people sought out new wishes for the new growing year.  My wish is that you all know the joy I experience from your experience.  Whether good or bad. I cry with you, laugh with you, I am annoyed for you but most of all I am grateful for you because you have made the difference.

Have a great and productive day!

Kim