Thursday, November 28, 2013

Thanksgiving, Counting Blessings

It is hard to believe it has been a year since I have posted here.  Time to get back to it.  It is good to begin with Thanksgiving and a reflection and recollection of blessings.

First I am always grateful for my parents.  Although they have not been with me on earth for too long a time, not a day goes by that I do not remember them with love and gratitude.

Second I am grateful for family and friends, especially those friends whom I have known for decades and with whom I am growing old.  For the youngest member of my family, who at sixteen months, charms and delights us.  For the oldest of my friends, who at ninety and a half (as he himself said two days ago) reminds me of my father.  A member of the "greatest generation", he reminds me of Papa and also of how much thanks we owe to those who have served in our nation's armed forces.

For those among my family and friends who served in the military, I am grateful and in this month of November that also includes Veteran's Day, I honor you.

For my 'best friend" from high school, our small Catholic girl's school, herself a Marine, I am so grateful.

For all the neighbors, especially three women who have become like sisters, who help me, befriend me and give me their time, I give thanks.

For the faith that my parents taught me, even when it wanes at times, I am very grateful.  It is so much a part of me that I once told one of my professors at the Divinity school, a very famous Catholic theologian, that "Catholicism was in my bones and blood". He looked out the window for such a long time, that I feared I had offended him.  When he turned back, he said simply, "mine too".

I am grateful for the gift of a first class education, for the teachers, especially the Sisters of the Holy Cross, who taught me in high school, my advisor and mentor at Stanford and the professors at the Divinity School.  Thank you.  You were all blessings in my life.

For my garden, especially the rose this year, which bloomed and bloomed.  Each one is so beautiful, so unique and they have a kind of patience and humility that only plants have.

Every day, I give thanks for the caring and superb team of medical professionals who cared for me at Stanford Hospital and Valley Medical Center's Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Unit. It has been three years.  Hard to believe that it has been so long.  I am almost pain free now, as nerves that had been damaged from overuse have healed.

For a diet that came out recently that I have been following for seven months, I am thankful.  If I live long enough I may solve my lifelong weight problem (or win my lifelong battle, depending on how best to phrase it.)  More, I hope, in later posts.  For now I am grateful for the seven inches I've gotten off my waist. Hurray!

For the people who invented computers, the Internet and all the technology I take for granted, I give you thanks.  For the people who invented durable medical equipment, especially the power chair I am sitting in even as I type this, I give thanks.

For the gift of still being alive slightly over sixty years after I was paralyzed from the neck down by the poliomyelitis virus, I am grateful. And that that virus, a nasty thing,no longer afflicts so many people I am also grateful

Praise and Thank God this Thanksgiving.  Thank you to all of you who are my friends.

I am grateful to Google too, for making my little blog possible.  I hope to be better organized to post more often.