"Driftwood"

Have you ever seen driftwood art? Amazing artists take old wood that has been beaten and battered by the sun and the sea and use it to make the most beautiful pieces. Like this one from Sandra's Driftwood:

I'm thinking about driftwood today because my Grateful AF card uses it as an example for all of us to remember our worth.

Driftwood is proof you can go through some shit and be even more beautiful for it.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not an advocate for suffering for suffering's sake. But I like the message here, that we are never made less because we have experienced hardship or endured trauma. In fact, the things we learn about ourselves - and the strength we discover in those moments - can be something powerful and wonderful that will serve us throughout the rest of our lives.

Me? I am grateful for the person I am today - loving, caring, and kind - and I attribute much of that to my experiences when life wasn't full of love, or care, or kindness. Those moments made me that much more determined to never let others feel as I did, so I will take my painful history and appreciate that it helped form me into the man I am today.

And for all of that, yes, I am grateful AF.