“I always count my blessings more than I count my money"

The full quote is “I always count my blessings more than I count my money. I don’t dwell on things that are depressing. I’ve had heartaches, I’ve had surgeries, I’ve had death in my family, but through it all, I’ve always been able to look back and count my blessings.”

Well, this is it! This is the 34th and last installment in my Dolly series. It’s not that I’ve run out of materials – goodness knows there are as many great Dolly Parton quotes as there are Dolly Parton songs! But it’s time to close this chapter and look forward to a different series next year. I’m not sure yet what it will be, so if you have ideas, I’m all ears.

I’ve mentioned before that the holidays are a tough time of year for me and for some of the people I love most. ?And counting my blessings is one of my most effective tricks for dealing with the blues. So as we come to the end of the year and the end of the Dolly series, I’ll share a few of my blessings with you.

I was born healthy and able in more ways than I can count. While I will never make a professional basketball team, there’s almost nothing I can’t do.

I live in a place where I get to do the things that I want to do without a lot of restrictions. There are challenges, for sure, but I CAN do all the things I can do – if you follow my drift.

I’m warm and safe and have a full belly - too full, to be honest! This alone puts me at the top of the top of the people in this world.

I have people who love me, care for me, spend time with me, make me laugh, and drive me crazy. Every bit of that sentence is a blessing.

I have work that I care about and I get to do it with people I care about and who challenge me. No matter how bad a work day might be, mine are still pretty darn good.

I have the resources – financial and otherwise – to live the life I want to live and explore the things I want to explore.

I have a sense of humor! Enough to laugh at myself and the world around me, and enough to drive me to create a year’s worth of musings based on Dolly Parton’s wisdom.

And I have all of you – a relatively captive audience that chose to join me on this reflective journey. I’m so glad you did.

Be like Dolly – and me!? Count your blessings knowing each of us has as many as there are stars in the sky.