Two days of gratitude

OOPS! I forgot to post yesterday. I am grateful for family photos that turned out well - and for my family who puts up with "okay gang, time for Christmas card photos!" each year. We just do candid shots.... usually in the back yard, since it makes the dog so much easier to control. This year, it was easier to just put the harness on him and do them on the front steps. We got in some great shots!

Today, I am grateful for an e-mail. Last night, before retiring, I was in a foul mood. Long story, and not really all that important anyway. Then this morning, when I went to my car, I had an "error message": "Warning! Tire Very Low!" My sweet daddy was out checking my tires at 5:15 AM, and then I had to stop to pump one up (not very low at all, but hey, what do I know....). THEN turning into the shopping center where my gym is located, this car cut me off, turning left in front to me. I was not happy. At all.

I checked my e-mail this morning to find my "Message from the Universe" ...... "What if I told you that your every conflict, disappointment, struggle or challenge, with others or yourself, was merely a manifestation of what's going on within your own thinking... would you go there first to fix, mend, and allay? Yeah, you might miss the drama."

Booyah. Universe 1, Me 0. Massive smackdown ..... true, and needed. So that's a challenge for me. Fix me, since I'm the only one I can fix, control, etc. Ever learning this.......

Today's moment of gratitude

Today, I am grateful for the kindness of strangers!

I was at my part-time Saturday job. I had wrapped up all the paperwork to close out, locked up the front, went out the back to put the trash in the bin and....... WHAM! there went the back door. Locked. With all my stuff -- and I mean, EVERYTHING -- still inside. I walked around the side and down to the PakMail location. The owner is usually kind enough to mail off my tally and other paperwork for me, so I thought he might be kind enough to let me use his phone to call the locksmith whose label graced our door.

The owner wasn't there, but one of his employees whom I'd never met before was. He was glad to let me use the phone. The locksmith didn't seem to know what key went to our suite, asking me, "I don't think it's been changed since y'all moved in, but who was the tenant before you?"

I have no idea, sir, I just work here on Saturdays.

Suddenly, the Pakmail guy says, "WAIT! DUH! I have a key; we drop off your packages there all the time!" Sure enough, we walked down and voila! worked like a charm.

WHEW! I gathered my goodies, locked up, dropped off my items to mail, and headed home. All because of the kindness of someone who was willing to help me in whatever way possible. So if you are in the Clemson-Seneca area, I highly recommend the kind people at PakMail at Heritage Pointe (the Bloom shopping center, even though it's really not Bloom anymore but Food Lion.... but I digress).

Fantastic Friday

I am thankful today for the gift of knowledge. I don't just mean the factoids that we gather from our schooling or various media. I mean knowledge that changes us so fundamentally that we move our lives from a place where ignorance is bliss to knowledge is power. And once you empower yourself with knowledge -- both those facts and the changed life -- you never want to go back.

I'm thankful for knowledge that comes from my learning, from my faith, from those life experiences that have made me a more powerful, more knowledgeable person. And for all I have yet to learn, I give thanks in advance!

Thursday's thankfulness...

For two of the best godchildren ever -- thank you, Lord. As it is highly unlikely that I will have kids, you have instead blessed me with two of the most wonderful, amazing creatures ever to dance into a life and change it forever. They are each precious to me in their own special way: funny, engaging, and just plain lots of fun to be around.

It is more than an honor, it is a privilege to be part of their lives. And I pray daily for their health, their well-being, and their continued growth in favor and in grace with God and with humanity.

Today, I am thankful for...

.... my dog's keen sense of hearing.

Last night, he began barking heavily. I'm not sure what time it was... just that it was sometime in the middle of the night, something disturbed him and he felt the need to alert us all. Repeatedly. Often.

While, yes, we lost a little sleep over it, I for one am very glad that he's sharp and can hear things that we cannot. Something made his Spidey-sense tingle, not in the good way, and he wanted to let us know. Granted, in this case, it was probably just a bird -- we heard some whistling outside, and figure it was most likely the case, if it wasn't someone actually whistling for their pet.

I'm thankful that he looks out for us, that he is alert and watchful, that he knows that we will care for him in the same way.

It's been too long....

So with today being November 1, I figure no better time than this month to get back to really being grateful and letting people know what it is about life, about them, about the world that I appreciate.

Today, I'm so grateful to have work that I enjoy, that's meaningful and helpful, and that allows me to grow and develop as an employee and a person. Today, I was especially grateful for a good sick leave policy that allowed me to leave ...... because I was feeling SUPER-lousy about 2:00 today. But in everything, give thanks. And in this case, I'm actually a little grateful for being sick.... it allowed me to get some much needed rest (apparently way more needed than I realized).

So let us always look for the good, improve the wrong, and move toward greater gratitude!

It has been too long

since I have blogged here, but I am grateful for the ability to have a moment to do so. So much has happened since I have blogged last:

About 2 days after my last post, Mom had a follow-up with the cardiologist about her stress test. He went over the details with her and had one question that had no answer: "So. Did they give you the exact date that you had your heart attack?" And that, my friends, is how we found out what had happened. I don't think Mom has allowed it to really sink in that she is now a cardiac patient. She isn't making all the necessary lifestyle changes, and I am so sad for that.... and yet, so glad that she is still here for now.

In early October, I came home from choir practice to have my brother say, "Oh by the way, Mom and Dad are at the hospital. They think Uncle (C) has had a stroke...." My aunt's husband had indeed had a major stroke, and sadly did not recover. Around 4 weeks later, he passed away from the complications, and now my poor aunt is really struggling. This spring would have been their 55th anniversary. He was the first of the line of siblings and spouses to pass, and that is a weird feeling.... it is disconcerting (at the very least) to think that these people who had such looming presence in my childhood are now slipping away. But I see it already ... both of my dad's sisters have had their share of health issues, another brother is diabetic (along with one of the sisters), another aunt-by-marriage has also had heart issues, another has also had a mild stroke (but made a good recovery), and who knows what else is going on that they're not talking about. I'm grateful, however, that they are still around, because it's helping to answer some of the health questions I am facing where heredity may play a stronger part than I think.

But wait -- that very same night, not 20 minutes after my brother said it, I logged onto Facebook and received another horrific shock. A fraternity brother of mine -- only 3 months older than me -- had died that Monday. To make it even stranger, she died on the 14th anniversary of my grandmother's passing .... and buried on the 14th anniversary of my grandmother's burial. Completely freaked me out to realize this (which I did about 2 weeks after the fact). She had just had surgery about 3 weeks before her death, and so everyone's first thought was whether it could be a complication -- an unforeseen blood clot, etc. Even her husband, a physician, was stymied. The initial phase of the autopsy didn't register anything unusual -- no heart attack, no blood clot, no stroke.... waiting on toxicology reports. They think it turned out to be a reaction of some sort to one of the medicines she was taking for her recovery. Another frat brother gone way too soon.

All of this has somehow galvanized me to greater advocacy and educational efforts. I almost feel as if for the last two years of my life, I am being asked by some greater cosmic good to be an agent for this: "educate and advocate" seems to be a mantra that crops up over and over again. And I'm grateful to be in such a place in my life where I feel that I can do this -- I don't know quite how it will all unfold but I know I am looking forward to what is out there.

And as always, I am grateful for every opportunity to make a difference to someone.