I hope this doesn't put a damper on things, but I just ran across this from Ann. Even with her and Bubba's health issues, she remembered to be grateful for all they did have. I know I could take a lesson from her.
We love and miss you so much, Ann.
12-19-2017, 01:32 PM
Ann
Nature Girl
Thread Starter Ann's Avatar
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: By The Lake
Posts: 60,328
Small confession here...I have been feeling a bit blue this year as my friends prepare to head to Florida right after Christmas. I love the nature in the swamps and the bird rookeries and all things palm trees and sunshine. It is out of the question for us to go, even if we paid the very high insurance it would cost us, we can't take the chance of something going wrong (like what recently happened to Bubba) that would not be covered....and yet I yearn for the smell of salt water and warm beaches at sunrise watching the shrimp boats head out or come in with the night catch. So I have been blue....until this morning.
I was sitting in the waiting room while Bubba had his CT scan and I just looked around at others there, bravely on their journey with cancer (it's a cancer hospital). Some with a daughter or son to help them get around, and many who were obviously sick, from the disease or their treatments, but each one braver than me. And then there was the young girl, maybe 12 or 13, who had lost her hair and yet smiled and waited her turn. Losing one's hair to cancer has an emotional punch that compares to nothing else we may go through. I lucked out on that part too.
I have so dang much to be grateful for, Bubba and I got really really lucky to be well today. We live an almost normal life and hell, when was my life "normal" anyway? I may not be able to go to Florida but I can go to the Rockies with my nephew or to whale watch off Vancouver Island with my niece. I can travel anywhere in Canada and there is a lot of Canada worth seeing, and worth seeing again if I have already been there. Bubba can travel with me when he wants and I'm happy to travel with family when he opts out. We live in a lovely area and can cottage on any number of lakes next summer. Life is good, darn good.
So I am soooo over myself now and it feels good. Sometimes gratitude needs to bowl me over before I feel it. I need to do something about that.