Unbroken Gratitude

Today I am grateful for my marriage to Darcy, our home together, and our growing family. I am grateful that our new grandson Aaron is eating and sleeping well. It all sure makes him adorable.

Special birthday wishes today to my brother Neal and my sister Leonice. Enjoy your special day you two! They were born on the same day seven years apart. What are the odds? I guess higher when there are 13 of you. Leonice is done with her 6 rounds of chemotherapy and will be starting radiation in the coming weeks. I remember my first birthday after my cancer diagnosis. Talk about mixed emotions! Thinking of you.

My emotional journey through the alphabet has come to an end, but I am still wrapping it up in ways. On the day I wrote about "yucky," I had some yucky moments. Emotional, hormonal, edgy, the wrong kind of zippy. But the next day was a new day, as they happen to be, and I felt better.

One of the unpleasant things that happened that yucky day was dropping and breaking the coffee mug I have used at school the last year. It was a gift from my friend Betsy. Here it is, after I dropped it:

It looked like I felt. Sharp. Raw. A bit dangerous. But "grateful" was unbroken and ultimately my gratefulness returned as well. It always does. Some days it may be minutes, others it may be hours, but it is never too long. Perhaps there is a shared laugh, or an acknowledgment of my Higher Power's sense of humor, or the perception shift that always comes. 

Whatever I have going on is usually fairly minor in the whole scheme of things, contrary to what my mind can try to make it. And even when it is major stuff, I can continue to live gratefully, appreciating the next moment, the next breath. Gratitude is always possible. 

Unbroken gratitude for us broken humans.