Inconvenience vs Thankfulness

Sunday morning. Packed bag to go to church. Decided to be realistic and not bring my marking along. Decided to be virtuous and bring water instead of buying sugared drinks later. Late for the bus. Why is there water dripping behind me as I walked to the door? Water bottle not closed tightly. Right....

*sigh* Checked for level of flooding in bag. Pool of water. Started to empty bag. Realised there were electronics. Quickly fished out my ipod, handphone and camera (each item was received with a new expletive). Well, at least they were acceptably dry, but what about....

Took out other wet/soaked items. Got a cloth to wipe the floor dry and these items dry too. Threw away now-wet tissues. Hung up bag and coat to dry. Got another bag and coat and other miscellaneous items. Realised I had forgotten my journal, so I had to double back to get it. Grrr....now I'm really late for the bus.

Just then, dad came home. Good. Got a ride from dad to cath that elusive bus. Phew.

On hindsight, I realised that while I was busy grumbling about the inconvenience of it all, I had overlooked the wonderful grace through the incident:
(1) All electronics were miraculously undamaged.
(2) Dad, who doesn't come home this early on Sunday mornings, did so this week.
(3) For some strange reason, the paper items (journal and marking) were not packed in to begin with, so they escaped the damage.

Which leaves me to wonder why I focused on the negative side of anything, rather than count my blessings. Well, they say to "always look on the bright side of life" - cliched but true.