“Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.” These wisdom-ous words were spoken by the late, great Doris Day – an icon of my childhood who would later inspire the name of my most diva-ish cat. Doris (the actress, not the cat) lived an incredibly colourful life in which she suffered much abuse and heartache but she never gave up and she never (publicly) complained. She used that radiant smile of hers to promote positivity and reach out to people’s charitable nature with her work in animal welfare.
Doris Day was right. You can never be truly happy if you are constantly looking for the negatives, seeing the worst in people or finding ways to complain. Having spent a fair bit of time working in customer service, I have definitely developed a very low tolerance and lack of respect for people who appear to make a living out of complaining! Of course it isn’t easy, or even remotely realistic, to live a life free of complaint – but complaining undoubtedly promotes misery, not only for yourself but for those around you.
When it comes to living with a chronic condition, Day’s words are even more pertinent. It’s hard not to focus on pain when you are always in pain, and it’s OK to feel sad about it but when you start to feel grateful for what you actually have and what you can do, life becomes a whole lot brighter and you begin to feel a whole lot richer.
Whatever you are up to and however you are feeling, I wish you all a Doris Day x
The Wibbly Dinosaur 