Hey, hey, hey!
I have fallen off the face of the earth in regards to this blog, but now is the perfect time to come back and write the most basic of blog posts, the “what I’m thankful for” post. And also, it’s good to have these things thought out before it’s my turn to say what I’m thankful for at the dinner table.
I can get very cranky, (blame it on the chronic pain), I generally employ an attitude of “ugh, well at least it’s not THIS” instead of “oh hooray, this happened!” in terms of optimism—but my mom did raise me to go over my favorite things at the end of the day. We used to keep a family journal of our Favorite Part of the Day when my brother and I were kids, and now it’s more of a nightly meditative ritual for me before I fall asleep and a yearly “OK, these things are good and don’t suck” inventory around the holidays.
So here we go—these are my happy, grateful or non-sucky things that I’m grateful for this Thanksgiving and this holiday season and most days.
Group chats and Skype sessions
I became a champion of long distance friendships in middle school and keeping in touch is a helluva lot easier which is great, since I keep missing the people I love more and more and more.
I love group chats, I love the fact that I can almost hear my friends’ voices in their deliberate choice of capitalization and use of emojis.
I love Skype, I love that my friends and I can eat dinner together in our rooms on weeknights in our sweats and hair piled on the tops of our heads and do BuzzFeed quizzes to verify which quiz is totally rigged and which one is, indeed, scientifically accurate.
Doctors who are generous with their time and resources
Overly compassionate doctors are hard to come by. Probably because I found all of them and I’m hoarding them up from the rest of you. SUCKERRRRS.
I really hope I don’t jinx anything, but I’m outrageously happy with my team of doctors. Several of them have gone far and beyond their call of duty in getting me the treatment I need and I couldn’t be more grateful for them not only as doctors but also as human beings.
Every service that lets me watch videos ever
I am drowning in an embarrassment of riches in entertainment. As a passionate lover of television programs, this is all I could ever want. I am never without something to watch, something to distract me, something to entertain me. AND something to suggest to others, thereby proving how fancy and cultured I am.
I can’t tell you how big a difference good entertainment makes when you’re sick, when your body feels like it’s falling apart. When your mind at least stops hurting along with it, flares don’t last nearly as long.
My friends
I’m grateful for all of my friends, their time, their faces, their existence.
But ohmygosh my heart bursts and grows a million billion sizes when I’m with a friend of mine and we’re out and about then they ask, “hey, do you need to take a minute to sit down?” or we’re planning something and they’re choosing a location and say something like, “oh, this place will be fun, there’s tons of seating!”
It means the world, I feel like the whole of me is remembered and accepted, and it’s sweet. It’s thoughtful. It’s important. It’s everything. It’s a moment I want to document and package in a Hallmark card sell to people at an extremely high markup because it would definitely sell. Because that’s the spirit of Thanksgiving.
My family
The most classic of things to be grateful for. But I’m so grateful to be born into a family whose empathy and experiences allow them very often to understand what I’m going through, or at least provide them the patience to give me time to deal with my plethora of problems. And if it’s all a ruse and they really don’t feel that way, then they’re damn good actors, and I’m grateful for that.
The basics
Safe home. Clean water. Food to eat. Necessary meds to take. Health insurance. Comfy bed. The daily essentials that millions live without that for whatever reason I’m lucky enough to have every day.
Progress
It’s slow. And I don’t always see it, but the people around me remind me of it. And it’s happening.
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I hope your Thanksgiving is lovely. I hope no one brings up the election, I hope everyone is on the same diet as you so there is no confusion as to whether the stuffing is GF or not, I hope if you’re a young adult, no one asks you what your life plans are and I hope that you get the the exact amount of dessert you desire.
Happy Turkey!