Beautiful Gifts - June 9

Gifts, gifts, and more gifts.
I love thinking outside of the box for gifts because 1) it makes me work harder, and 2) it means that I get to really dig deep into what I'm truly grateful for. And that makes me much more appreciative, especially of those Ugly-Beautiful Gifts (which you can read below).

3 Gifts Orange
1) Sought Church's main color is orange. It surprises me because I've never been an orange lover, but... It's fun to have such a distinctive color!
2) Sunsets
3)  Juanita's Tortilla Chips. Because YUM. (OK, the chips are yellow and the bag is more red, but still. Close enough.)

3 Gifts "Ugly-Beautiful"
1) Today a caller called me a stupid interpreter because he wouldn't listen to me explain why I couldn't do what he wanted--it wasn't allowed and it wasn't even possible. It made me angry because people can be downright horrible when there is anonymity. However... it also made me think of the caller I had who thanked me at the end of the call and said, "You were a great match. Fantastic." If you've been around the interpreting world for any length of time, you know that being a great match for someone is the ultimate goal for what you want. Not just "thumbs up" or "great job, interpreter."  A good match means choosing signs and words that each person would use if THEY spoke the language you're interpreting into.
2) Accounting classes, because they help me balance a checkbook for more than just myself.
3) Traffic driving through the Spaghetti Bowl. It means that I get to go slower through my favorite part of the city, Downtown.

Beautiful Gifts - May 31

Ann Voskamp wrote a revolutionary book called 1000 Gifts a few years ago. I call it revolutionary because I never imagined that giving thanks for something could actually change people's lives. However... According to Ann, research as proven that people are 25% happier when they are actively grateful. And according to ME, my life is infinitely better when I live in an attitude of giving thanks every day, as opposed to griping every day.

That means that, in order for me to live my best year yet, I need to be grateful. Every day. Every week.

I certainly hope you will join me. I want to use Ann's list as a prompt to think outside of the normal, to reach further than where I would tend to go.  I may not go there every day, but I will use it as a resource. Prepare for a lovely list, and some fun stories as I add to MY list of Gifts!

3 Gifts Found in Church
1) Encouragement
2) Love and Growth
3) "I missed you!" A few weeks ago, I had to miss our church gathering because I had progressed to the District level for Toastmasters and had to go to California for our District Conference. When I came back the next weekend, I saw my four-year-old friend, C. The moment she got out of the car, she ran to me and said, "Emily! I missed you so much!" You can't beat that.

3 Gifts in Today's Work
This is ironic since Today's Work was church!
1) Air-Conditioning. When it's 102 degrees for the first time of the year, and your church is a start-up that meets in a theater, you're grateful that there is cold air to dry the sweat of your hard work!
2) People who care about seeing everyone free. We had the founder of FREE International join us today to talk about sex trafficking and how we can help. If you want to join us in helping to create a home for young girls who have been rescued from the sex trade to go to recover and heal, please go to www.soughtchurch.com/give, and give to Beyond Us. We're raising $10,000 this year.
3) Promise