When a good friend of mine was going through a challenging time, she would periodically use her blog to make a list of 5 things she was thankful for. Her strength and positive focus touched me. She could have easily reacted to her situation with a "poor me" or "down in the dumps" kind of attitude (and others would have definitely understood) yet she chose to walk a positive path.
When I need a little pick-me-up or find myself needing to balance some "yuck" in my day with something joyful, I think of 5 things in my life that bring me joy. Here are my five for today:
1. My wonderful husband. There is a new kind of thankfulness and awe I feel about C in my very pregnant state as we begin this road of parenthood. He amazingly has gone and keeps going to ALL of my many OB appointments despite spending many boring hours waiting in Dr.'s offices. He also loves me in spite of my being HUGE. I go through periods of considering myself big and ugly and he says simple, wise words like "Of course you're huge, you're supposed to be huge, you're pregnant." He loves me in my tired, last trimester of pregnancy state of always being ready for my next nap even when it happens to fall right at a time when he's up for an adventure! He patiently walks next to me in my current snail pace walking mode without looking at all annoyed. He kindly goes through the motions of burping a doll in newborn class and adds funny wisecracks to keep me laughing. When we thought we might have a baby much sooner than planned, my eyes got wide in shock while his immediate response was "Why wait? We've been waiting all of this time to be parents. We might as well start being parents now instead of putting it off for another month." He does a nice job of looking out for me and taking care of me (And did you know that chivalry is not dead? This is one of his traits that stood out to me when we were dating that yes, has continued into marriage. He opens doors and even steps aside when we enter a room to allow me to go first). For all he is and all he puts up with, I am thankful!
2. Amazing friends and supportive family who love me, treat me with respect, keep me grounded and seem to always find time to listen and lend a positive, encouraging word when needed.
3. Good results on a non-stress test today for Baby B. His movements were monitored over a period of time and the results were deemed "excellent". Funny, C asked me at one point during the test if I was feeling any movement and a foot immediately strongly kicked towards him out of the side of my belly. C sure got a quick response to his question!
4. Arni's Pizza
5. An upcoming exciting adventure to look forward to. More details on that later (hopefully, with pictures)!
What are your 5 things?
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These might not be my "top 5" but they're the first five that come to mind when I think of things I was deeply thankful for Wednesday.
ReplyDelete1) Friendship. The fact that I am surrounded by amazing friends and that I am skilled in developing and maintaining lasting friendships is the #1 thing that I am thankful for each and every day of my life going back 20+ years. Friendship is something I'm truly good at, something I'm obviously doing right, and that continues to serve me well with both my family of birth as well as my extended family of choice.
2) The perspective that experience brings. It gives me confidence and helps me keep moving forward in productive ways. When a thoroughly problematic situation came up in a volunteer organization I'm relying on, that sense of perspective gave me the confidence to know that the problem would be resolved *somehow* -- preferably by others, but even I had several ideas for how to turn an enormous lemon into lemon meringue pie if I'd needed to. Fortunately, others have done what was necessary to fix the problem and I'm left proud of the fact that I spent the 24 hours of the interim in relative mental comfort rather than being in a panic over the size of the lemon and all of the damage it could do.
3) Living in the future. Wednesday's example of that was seeing "Fly Lab." Fly Lab helps teach genetics by letting users virtually breed generation after generation of fruit flies and then study the data to see what happens in each successive generation. Who knew fruit flies had so many different gene-linked traits? Not me! Wing shape, okay. But bristles? Wow. I'd never even heard of bristles on fruit flies. Gavi and I worked our way through 7 other traits, too, marking our selections for both male and female flies, then virtually breeding them and looking at the results. Fly Lab is fabulous!
4) Visual delight. Wednesday held a full measure of visual delight and then some. Susan, Gavi, and I drove up the Taconic Parkway from Yorktown Heights, NY, to tour Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, then drove through the Berkshires on the Mass Pike on our way home.
5) The internet. For me, it's a key connection to knowledge and to the the world as well as to people I love. Without it, I never would have moved to Toad Woods or remained self-employed for 19+ years. With it, my life is richer and fuller than I ever dreamed it would be.