This has been quite a week and it is only Wednesday. Tonight is going to be one of simple gratitude and then perhaps a recycled reflection from an earlier post.
I am grateful for and humbled by the folks who faithfully read this blog–some have read daily since the beginning, missing only a day here or there before making it up. Others started somewhere in the middle, and still others have only recently started reading it. I am grateful to all of you because no matter when you joined me on this journey, you’ve been present, offering comments, “liking” it on Facebook, and periodically sharing it with others. I find myself continually surprised by the various posts that people find helpful; some I have written on the fly, one some occasions I write when I am totally exhausted and barely coherent, and still others I can say I had a clear head and wrote an expressive, organized, meaningful piece. The funny thing is people have “liked” and commented on the good, the not so good, and the really not so good and have found meaning and taken away insights. No matter how I might have perceived them as being poorly written, readers found them valuable, and that’s really what this is all about.
So earlier this week when I wrote a heartfelt post about believing in the basic goodness of people, some of my faithful readers really liked it. And they shared it on their walls and other people read it. More people have read that one than they’ve read any previous post for a long time. I’m not entirely sure why it resonated with people so much, but it did and I’m so glad about that. I have been on a wild ride lately; the mechanical bull is functioning well, tossing me back and forth, up and down, and my landings haven’t been particularly graceful. Somehow, though, with all that’s been going on in the country, people seem to have resonated with a message of hope and determination from a weary warrior. I am so grateful that these words and sentiments on themes associated with gratitude connect with people and if that helps you think more about how you express gratitude in your life, that is absolutely fabulous. That is in fact why I keep writing even when I’m a bit weary. So I ask your pardon for those occasions when I spin the random number generator wheel and offer a “recycled” post. Sometimes it’s all I can do to keep the conversation going until I have the energy to write an original post.
The other thing I am grateful for this evening is for my four-legged friend who is still recovering from being jumped and injured by another (bigger) dog. Today was her last trip to the vet to have the stitches removed from her ear, a piece of which had been torn off in the attack. She still has to wear the “cone of shame” for a few more days to keep her from scratching it and potentially aggravating the injury, but she’s at last been liberated from the irritating head wrap that had trapped both ears to keep her from flapping them and injuring herself. It was a small shock when I got my first look at it and realized that a chunk of her ear is gone, but I remain grateful that she wasn’t more seriously injured and continues to heal. As I teased when it first happened, she’ll have a great story to tell all the other dogs at the dog park (“You think I look bad, you should see the other guy…”) I owe a debt of gratitude to my brother-in-law who carted her back and forth to the vet over the past two weeks and incurred the costs of her treatment. I would not have been able to do it, though I imagine I’d have found a way somehow.
I am grateful for many things this day: faithful readers, recovering canines, wonderful family. What are you grateful for this day?
