Tonight I am off to a late start and am fighting off a headache as I sit down to write. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past two years it’s been how to push through the challenges, obstacles, distractions and other struggles that come along and get in the way of making progress. So I will push through and offer a few simple gratitudes.
First, from an earlier Lesson in Gratitude (Day 301) I want to offer this:
Tonight I am simply grateful for the ability to draw a deep breath, allowing the oxygen to flow through my temporarily able body. Grateful that my fingers can move freely and without pain across the keyboard, that my hands and arms move the way I want them to,and that I can feel the weight and the heat of my laptop as it rests on my lap. I am grateful for a mind that, for the most part, is clear and capable of coherent thought, of communication, of creativity. I can hear the whirring of the fan sending the cool air tickling across my body as I sit here. “I am wonderfully and fearfully made,” the writer says, which to me speaks to this amazing and complex collection of cells called the human body. I am grateful for each part working, for the most part, how it’s supposed to work. I do not take this for granted. I also note the things that perhaps don’t work as well as they used to, or don’t look as neat and trime as they once did. This is the temporary part of “temporarily able bodied.” And that’s alright, it is as it should be. I am grateful.
I continue to be amazed at the fact that there are seven billion miracles walking this planet today. If you take the remarkable complexity of a single human being–the zillions of specialized cells that form themselves into the various organs that combine to form systems that regulate various processes in that single body and multiply it by seven billion, the sheer number of cells and tissues and organs and systems would be astronomical. Each individual is a walking miracle, and when you think about the number of perils that we face every single day without realizing it, we are blessed indeed.
I am grateful to be here each evening, bringing together thoughts and words in expressions of gratitude. Sometimes it’s a struggle to be here writing and at others there’s nothing more natural and easy than for me to be here writing and sharing these thoughts. I am thankful to those folks who read and receive some benefit from hanging out in here with me. May you be filled with lovingkindness. May you be well. May you be peaceful and at ease. May you be truly happy.
I am thankful for the day just passed and look forward to a good rest this tonight and a good day tomorrow.
