I feel I should be writing about gratitude this weekend of Thanksgiving. Many things have gone through my mind today ~ my home, my family, my career, my friends and all seems so trite and cliche. Doesn’t everyone say they are grateful for all of these things ~ or at least aren’t we all supposed to be grateful for all of these things?
However that may be, what I am truly grateful for is my learned ability to be independent ~ not of my family, friends, career or home, but independent of the epilepsy that I carry with me. I carry epilepsy with me as surely as I carry the hair on my head or any other feature of my physical being.
My independence has come at a cost. The cost has been in limitations recognized and respected so that life can be and has been shaped and moulded carefully and calmly. (Well, maybe not always calmly.) The rewards I have reaped have been much greater than the cost. Relationships continually being restored, renewed and developed. A driver’s license held for 35 years. A successful career that has spanned over four decades.
Gratitude has been a gently driving energy that has shifted many moody gears throughout these constantly moving years. When enjoying a good ‘pity party’, gratitude for what is in the present, what has gone before and horizons yet to be discovered has helped me blow out darkly burning candles and light new, bright and colourful candles.
“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart,
it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”
~ AA.Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
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