Well my New Year’s Resolution was trashed by the 2nd of January this year……that was a record for me! My intention was to kick start the whole family into a healthy, New Year with a boost of activity by spending a week skiing in Andorra.

Unfortunately, ill health took over on the 31st Dec and my son collapsed into a big heap on New Year’s Day with a high temperature and chest infection, followed several days later by me! So what was there to do? Not a lot, other than nurse ourselves better in front of the fire and get the odd bit of sympathy from my daughter and husband.

Initially frustrated that my plans had not come to fruition, I decided to change my attitude and become a little more flexible.

Maybe I shouldn’t view the illness as a negative but instead focus on how we could still enjoy our time together as a family. The weather was terrible, so the TV kept cutting out, which left limited options: board games and DVD’s.
I think we watched more movies in that one week than we have done in the last year. We watched a variety of films, which invoked feelings of sadness, laughter, embarrassment and gratitude. With these powerful feelings reeling inside, we found ourselves having really deep conversations about our life and the lifestyle we live.

One of the films we watched was Hotel Rwanda; a very emotional film about a hotel manager and his family and how they coped during the Rwandan civil war. My daughter commented as to how lucky we are to live on this side of the world, have good health and enough money for food and shelter.

The next day we watched a piece on Sky News about a quadriplegic who sailed single-handed, round the world to celebrate how grateful he was for his life and the riches it contained in the 25 years since he was paralysed! He was a genuine, positive and inspiring man. It is amazing how true gratitude can shape a person.

So, does that mean I should be happy to pick up the children’s dirty clothes from the floor around the linen basket, as it is sooo difficult for them to place the laundry inside! Delighted to clean up after every rain storm because of our leaky windows, ecstatic to push a Calor-gas heater around the house, as it is my husband’s idea of central heating and thrilled that if I don’t do things my husband’s way, he gets cross. Is it wrong to feel these frustrations when we live in such a lovely house, in a lovely town in a great part of the world with our health and only a touch of insanity- at times!

So, would gratitude be more effective than half a bottle of wine? Not really I believe at 3.50 euros for a nice bottle of wine, it’s worth every centimo! I’ll work on the gratitude as next year’s New Year’s Resolution.