First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone! I’m linking up with Thinking Out Loud again which has become my Thursday routine. TOL is sponsored by Amanda at Running With Spoons. If you have time today, stop over there to see what everyone else has on their minds. If not, just book mark it and go back tomorrow instead of spending all of your money on-line!
I feel I’ve been grumbling a lot in my Thinking Out Loud posts, but today there’s none of that. This post is about thanks and gratitude.
I have so many things this year for which I am thankful that I’m not sure where to start, so I may jump around a bit as things come to me.
~I am so very Thankful for the amazing gift and opportunity I was given this year. This time last year, I was not feeling very well. The cold and damp of the impending winter were starting make me feel the beginnings of the degenerative joint disease that got worse and worse through the winter and spring. As the winter progressed, so did my pain and discomfort. Finally in March, I could barely walk. I was so very lucky that I was able to find Dr. Richard Rothman at the Rothman Institute in Philadelphia. He changed my life by giving me two new titanium hips (yes I AM bionic!) and I will always be grateful. Besides, he told me I looked like I was in my 20’s…of course he was wearing glasses!
~I am so grateful to my best friend, Gail. Not only did she come back to New Jersey from her vacation in Maine to spend two weeks with me while I got on the road to recovery, but she opened her home to me for almost three months while she went back to Maine. Her house was more conducive to my recovery than mine was. She let me stay there and only laughed when I referred to myself as her “squatter.” She couldn’t be better. I’m so lucky to have her as my friend.
~I am so grateful to my sister, Ele. She visited me almost every day while I was there. She supported me and encouraged me and always made me feel I could get up and get back to normal. She was an especially welcome visitor when Ralph went West to his Army reunion and then on to New Mexico. She was great, but then she always is!! I’m so lucky to have the best sister in the world.
~Finally I want to say how lucky I am to have Ralph. He was admittedly a nervous wreck before during and after the surgery. He tried not to show it, but it’s hard for Ralph not to show his emotions. That’s one of the best things about him. He fed me (too much at times!) kept me company, worried about me, cared for me and encouraged me. He is wonderful and I’m so grateful that he came into my life.
I wanted to share this picture of Ralph and Me. We don’t look Too Happy, do we?!? This was taken on Thanksgiving 1993. I don’t know this because I was smart enough to write it on the back of the photo. For some reason our family Never got that concept. We have tons of photos with nothing written on the back and we have NO idea who the people are. Most of the people who could identify the photos are gone. So Ele and I are left making up stories about who they are.
I know when this was taken because we also have a video that my niece, Mary took on Thanksgiving 1993. In that video, you can see this photo being taken. It is the coolest thing to have something like that. It’s almost a little creepy, almost like it’s the paparazzi! It’s fairly long and Mary narrates the entire video. We lost her in 2007 so it’s wonderful to hear her voice and experience her sense of humor again. It is a gift and I’m thankful for that.
~My thankfulness is boundless today. I can’t show enough gratitude to these people who have made my life so full this year. So have just come into my life recently, others have always been there. There are many others, but this is long already. I’ve always been lucky. I don’t know if I’ve always been grateful or thankful enough. I am now.
Be sure to stop over at Running With Spoons to read the other Thinking Out Loud posts. I bet you’ll find a lot of thanks and gratitude there, today.
Happy Thanksgiving!!