Yours truly was given a gift today and she wants the universe to know she's greatly appreciative.
The gift was brunch with four close friends from high school.
Two of these friends are struggling and it hurts her heart. (I can't write the rest of this in third person so it's about to get personal.)
One friend has been nursing family members for quite some time and jokes that she has VIP parking at two local hospitals.
The other friend is in a battle for her life, awaiting news that a vital organ has become available to her for transplant.
We had a few laughs today because amazingly, both of these women still have their senses of humour.
My other two friends have their own challenges. Aging parents who are becoming more needy as they get older. Caring for friends who need a drive, need a hand, just need a friend.
On the drive home I struggled to remain positive and rather than end up in a pool of misery, feeling sorry for my friends, I decided to start counting my blessings, which ended up being an exercise in remembering all sorts of lame adjectives. Here's what I came up with:
I'm blessed with good health. A great partner. Talented children. Amazing grandchildren. Wonderful job. Fabulous co-workers. Safe and gorgeous home. Money in the bank. Good friends. Supportive and loving siblings.
At this point in my one-sided, car ride home conversation, I stopped myself because my list of blessings was sounding trite. Meaningless in the whole scheme of things really. Why? Because in a nano-second, at the drop of a hat, in the blink of an eye, all of that could go away if one of my children was suffering from a life-threatening disease, or if one of my major organs decided it really didn't like being housed in this body any more.
And so there I was, still driving and once again, headed down the hill to that pool of misery. Until I found that one positive blessing that was there all along: my four friends from high school!
Thank you ladies for a wonderful afternoon!
