It’s Thanksgiving! Everyone is all gobble gobble gobble, and gluttonous happiness.

Let’s talk gratitude for a minute. Yesterday, I was thankful hobbies. When I was younger I did bead work and crocheted too. I all but gave ‘em up because of the pain in my joints. But with meds, and mostly pain free afternoons, I’ve picked up my hobbies again. I’m grateful for that.

Today is Thanksgiving and I’m grateful for the opportunity to spend my day writing and reading. Rocking sweatpants, snuggled in to a cozy couch, I’ve got a serious day of writing, reading and maybe some cooking planned. Fan-freaking-tastic.

Since we’ve arrived at last at Thanksgiving, this will be the final, formal “gratitude” post.  But this has been an important exercise for me in finding the positive.  There’s always something to be grateful for.   And I’ll be working to bring that perspective to this blog on a more regular basis.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  Move forward with gratitude.

Today, I’m grateful for the Internet.  It was allowed me to uncover a wealth of information about my disease (and many other things too of course), and the web has also helped me to connect with others for support.

Admittedly, it was harder for me to locate gratitude today.  I’m in a bad mood.  I woke up sore from pushing it yesterday with my class (teaching) and work load, and driving in the rain here is definitely fear inducing.  I had to dig deep to find something to be grateful for because I was definitely not in the mindset.

That said, today I’m grateful for perspective.  This disease does a lot of things that piss me off and remove me from my natural peer group of twenty-somethings, but as a positive consequence of this illness I am able to understand and empathize with my elders.  Beyond having empathy for physical constraints that scare me about aging, I don’t have the superman complex associated with most people my age.  I understand circumstances that force uncomfortable decisions.  I relate to not being fully free to take big risks.  Perpsective is bittersweet.  But I’m grateful for it.