Now for a serious note

When I was a seminarian -- something I never mention myself -- I was blessed to have a wise and experienced priest as my spiritual director. At one point, I went to him in much confusion and sorrow as I struggled with a situation that I did not know how to handle. 

I was gay and had fallen in love.  

After some discussion, much of which centered on my need to accept things that I could not change, he sent me home with this instruction: “Take fifteen minutes of your prayer time this evening thanking God for creating you as a gay man who is able to know what it is to love.” 

I add that, of course, he was not advocating that I act on my feelings!
   
I assure you that it struck me as the most foolish advice I had ever been given! But I went home and did it.
  
I began to thank God. At first it was hard not to drift into complaining, but I stuck to it. Gradually I began to discover hidden blessings in that situation, things I had overlooked before or discounted. And then, I began to see that being gay was not a merely tolerable situation. It was a great gift that had enriched my life already in unexpected and unappreciated ways. Even more, it would continue to do so if I would open myself to receive the gift.

That fifteen minutes changed my life. 

So you might want to consider this. At the end of every day, look back and give thanks. Thanks for the obvious blessings, thanks for the small and the large, thanks especially for the hidden ones.They may be the biggest ones of all.

Here endeth the lesson.