Giving Thanks (and it’s not even November…)

One of my blog addictions is This Piece of Work (aka, POW). Yesterday, she wrote about some blessings in her life. She got this idea from Mommygoth, at What happened to my rock and roll lifestyle?. I like the idea. Seems like it’s about being thankful for the little things in life, and just talking about them on a weekly basis. Nice idea for a blog, right? For example, I can be thankful that we had the plumber come out last week, and now when I want water in the bathroom sink, I just turn the faucet, and I get water in the sink. Lovely. That kind of stuff. Not the big stuff. The problem is, while I was out walking Genevieve this morning, I couldn’t think of the little stuff without the big stuff getting in the way. It’s like the big elephant in the middle of the room that I was trying to avoid, but I couldn’t. So, I thought, maybe I’ll write this one blog about the big stuff, and then if I decide to revisit the idea of thankfulness, I can give appreciation to the water-in-the-sink kind of things at that time. So, here we go.

I’m thankful for my family. Well, duh, aren’t we all, but really, truly, I am. I am 40 years old and I still have both of my grandmothers alive. I have both of my parents, and they’re both healthy and doing well. I have all of my siblings, also healthy and doing well. No deaths, no terrible illnesses, no horrid car crashes that change your life forever in the blink of an eye. Do you know how great that is? I think we all know someone who has had their life changed by death, illness, etc., and so yeah, we all know how great that is. I’m thankful for that. Also thankful that there are no major dysfunctions there…we’re all pretty normal people, loving and caring, in a protestant/whitebread kind of way.

I’m thankful for my husband. He is a wonderful man, my best friend, a very funny, handsome, wonderful person. He’s the best father I could want for our daughter. The best husband I could want for myself. He’s a wonderful son and brother to his family. These things all matter, and I’m thankful for them.

I’m thankful for my inlaws, who are a very close knit bunch, somewhat nosey and bossy, but it’s a balance to my side of the family that is removed and doesn’t discuss certain things, because it just isn’t done. I’m thankful for that balance in my life, and that they are such open, friendly people, who have welcomed me into their family, and who know that I am more reserved and quiet, and love me anyway.

I’m thankful for my daughter. And here’s where I’ll spend most of my time in this post, because besides being thankful for her beauty, humor, intelligence, caring, and compassion, I am thankful for her health. There’s not a thing wrong with her that braces haven’t already fixed. Of course I know, this could change in the blink of an eye, but I’m thankful that at least for now, it’s true. My dear friend, Neva, has two sons. Her older son, Sean, has epilepsy. Not the kind of epilepy that Danny Glover has…the functioning, controlled by medication type. Sean’s epilepy is so severe that he functions at the level of a young toddler. He’s 17. He wasn’t always this way. Until he was 7, he had seizures periodically, but not debilitating ones. He was bright and energetic and smart, full of life. He loved math. Now, he loves his parents and his brother, he enjoys looking at numbers on calculators and calendars, and cannot communicate with his family. He recently had a seizure so severe that he broke his arm, and because he cannot communicate, even to cry out in pain, no one knew until the next day. So yes, I’m thankful for Maya’s health. Neva and I try to get together for dinner once a month or so, and we’ll be talking, and I’ll be telling her of my frustration because I got in a fight with Maya about homework or something stupid like that. Does she ever say, “You should be thankful for your problems, thankful for a child who is capable of doing homework, capable of getting in an argument with you when she’s angry”? No, she never does. She never holds Sean’s illness up as a lesson to us all, a lesson that we shouldn’t complain, just shut up and be thankful. She knows life isn’t like that…that we all have our daily joys and frustrations, and she has them as well, with her job, her family, her husband, and her younger son, who is, thankfully, healthy. I’m thankful for Neva.

That’s a pretty rambling post…but having said all of that, I can say, I am thankful, I am blessed. Thankful for my family, my inlaws, my job, my house, the relative security of living in the US. Next time, I’ll write about the sink and stuff. Because I’m thankful for those things, too.