Today I’m grateful for things that didn’t work out.
I’m thankful that my six-month crush on that cute cowboy that used to dance with me at the Copper Penny in the 90s never came to fruition, although I was sure at the time that I’d die if it didn’t.
I’m grateful that I didn’t make the basketball cheerleader roster when I was a sophomore in high school, although I spent four days in tears after the summer afternoon when I raced to the school to check the vote tally and found my name wasn’t in the top five.
I’m glad we weren’t able to make the deal work on that condo downtown on Washington Street, the one I was so certain would be a great investment. I’m happy that the lot we wanted to buy at Ute Lake became unavailable at the exact moment we were planning to make an offer.
I’m thrilled that the guy I dated right after I got my “cancer free” news didn’t become anything more than “a guy I dated,” even though I was devastated that he dumped me after taking me to a scan. I knew that the cancer was the reason I was treated so badly, but still my pride was sore.
As it was when I was cheated on by the boyfriend before that one.
As it was when I didn’t get in on a marketing proposal for an organic beef operation, a proposal that had my annual salary as part of the PR team coming in at six figures.
As it was when I didn’t get invited to go out on the lake that first warm summer day in 2012, the day I stayed home and decided to finally follow my dream and move to Santa Fe.
Everyone has a list of the things that didn’t work out, the events that we were so certain at the time would make our lives whole and happy and stress free and exhilarating. The things we thought we absolutely had to have.
Today, I’m most grateful for who I am right now, where my life is right now, for all the missteps that lead me right here. I’m grateful that even though sometimes I don’t know what’s going to work for me, someone or some thing does. I’m going to give credit to God for being smarter than me. Always.
Things work out exactly as they’re supposed to.
What in your life didn’t work out the way you wanted it to? And how grateful are you for that loss?
Bunny Terry is a native New Mexican who grew up on a farm in northeastern New Mexico. Her first writing job was typing stories on index cards on her family’s Underwood, stories that were uncannily like the ones she read over and over in O Ye’ Jigs and Julips, her favorite childhood book. No one thought to save those index cards for posterity, although there is the theory sarcastically circulated by her siblings that they will certainly be worth millions someday. 
I’m grateful for God helping me through 5 different cancers. At the time I thought why me?. Paved the way for a great testimony.
You are a gift, Larry! You and I have had such varied paths to get to right here, right now. Stay healthy, friend.