I would like to begin a daily practice of explicitly expressing my gratitude for the good health that I’ve been lucky to experience for most of my 24 years on this earth.
This thought occurs to me as I successfully finish my second cup of applesauce of the day, which is the sum total of what I’ve eaten in the past 24 hours. In an unfortunate juxtaposition, the ratio of what I’ve given back to the earth in the form of vomit relative to what I’ve consumed today–and this is my educated guess–is about 400. What I endearingly will refer to as “The Least Pleasant 3 Minutes of My Life” (TLP3MOFL), has humbly reminded me of how lucky I have good health the majority of the other time.
In all seriousness, as I lay on my bed now I am truly grateful for the lack of pain in my stomach, for the smooth, deep breaths that fill my lungs, and for the absence of nausea that has accompanied me the past 24 hours. And while the virus or food poisoning that I had was relatively harmless (more unpleasant than anything else), this experience in general reminds me of how fragile we all really are. I realize that the good health that I have in the moment is not a guarantee, though it may feel like it. For many people it only takes a moment for one’s health to change quickly, and as I age I am starting to really understand this.
While I was too young to remember the situation in any detail or to really comprehend its weight, thinking of the gift of my good health reminds me of my Mom. As a young woman in her mid-forties, she went for a routine check-up with her primary care physician. After taking a few measures of her heart health, she was immediately sent to the nearest hospital for open-heart surgery. As a young boy of 5 or 6 years old, I didn’t understand the gravity of this situation, though I remember hearing other children saying things like “Aren’t you worried that your Mom is going to die?” Looking back now, I can’t imagine how much stress and worry this was for my Dad and my older sister, who understood the situation much better than myself. I also can’t believe that I almost lost my Mom.
Thankfully, the operation went smoothly and she is doing great today. Since I’ve never really done so, I want to give a heartfelt “thank you” to all the doctors and nurses that made my Mom’s operation a success. You people are rockstars.
Have you had the chance to give thanks for your health? Even if things are not going exactly how you would like them to at this moment, I want to challenge you to take a moment out of your day to do so. And even if you are not in perfect health, to still give thanks for that which your body can in fact do, be that simply seeing, hearing, feeling, thinking.
Being in good health is truly a gift, and I don’t want losing it to be the reason why I start to appreciate it.
–Brandon
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