November 26, 2013

• The Obligatory Thanksgiving Post

  It’s that time of year when we all pause to think about gratitude. This has been a weird year for me. There were times that I couldn’t wait for 2014 to roll around, but overall I suppose it could have been worse. Actually, I know it could have been worse because no year to date has come even close to the suckiness of 2007. That is something to be thankful for right there. This year has had its own challenges, but we’ve made it through all of them so far and that’s something else for which to be thankful. (Proper grammar for all of you who cringed at the last sentence.)

  I tend to grab onto the small moments of gratitude. A sunny day, dinner out with my husband, geocaching with friends, laughing with my daughter, dancing in the living room to Paul Simon, Joe Cocker, Van Morrison, Billy Joel, and The Band… These are the kinds of things I jot down in my journal at night when I think back over the day and stop to recognize each small joy. It’s how I cope with an ill mother, a dying uncle, long road trips, aching joints and lake effect snow.

  Somehow, though, little slices of gratitude don’t feel like enough this time of year. I feel like I should have something big and wonderful to be thankful for (sorry grammar police). (Ha! Adding a parenthetical kept me from ending on a preposition. Take that!) Anyway, in the spirit of big and wonderful, I am thankful for my boobs. Not that they’re all that big, nor, after 54 years, particularly wonderful. Specifically, I am thankful for my right breast and for the soreness in it today. You see, after my mammogram a few weeks ago, the radiologist saw something hinky on one of the films so today I had another mammogram. Let me tell you, when they are trying to find something hinky, they are much more aggressive and creative in stretching, rolling and squishing. Even my right armpit is sore from the way I had to stretch my arm over the corner of the machine. But I am thankful for the soreness because my breast is still there to hurt. Most of all, I am thankful that all of today’s shots were clear; the hinkiness was just a quirk of compression and angle.

  This has been a year of health concerns that ended up being nothing. My eyes are just getting old, my foot was just a minor injury, I just need to stop clenching my teeth, the extended bout of laryngitis was just a virus, and my breast just needed to be stretched, rolled and squished a little more. I am thankful for all of those “justs.”

   

  • 11:35 pm
  • 5 Comments