“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man had plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” – Charles Dickens
As the year comes to a close, I have a tradition of spending some time acknowledging all of the things I am grateful for. Some years are harder than others. This year I have gone through two difficult surgeries, suffered personal losses and dealt with a lot of stress. However in spite of all of that, I still was excited to record all of the things that I am grateful for at the conclusion of a somewhat trying year. The older I get, I continue to find it easier to recognize all I have to be thankful for in my life. I have separated my blessings into three categories: personal, business, and health.
- Personal. I always realize how blessed I am to have a loving family and group of friends. I have enough people in my life whom I care for that I am able to feel tired from all of the social gatherings over the holiday season. I am so happy that I have plans for most weekends over the holidays. I often struggle with fatigue, but am so happy that I have enough people in my life that I want to spend time with to become tired. My family and close friends are all very aware of my health limitations and still make an effort to include me and not make things too taxing on me. For that love and support, I am truly grateful. Thank you to all my family and friends whom I can always count on for a laugh or a cry depending on what I am in need of. I always hope to do the same in return. I have a loyal and understanding husband that I share my life with. It is not always easy to live which someone who lives with a health condition that often puts limits on our lives. I am lucky to have a partner who is willing to roll with the punches and pick up the slack when needed. For you Kip, I am grateful.
- Business. This category is one that even though I am no longer able to work as a teacher, I am blessed to still have things to write on this topic. I am able to facilitate two support groups, one for teachers on disability and one for people living with MS. Many people in these groups I could also include in the above personal category. They have become friends and confidentes. We share our triumphs and concerns and I learn so much from members of both groups. They allow me to still feel a sense of purpose and that I have something to contribute to others. In addition, this blog post allows me to feel the same sense of pride in my ability to express myself and hopefully help others somehow along the way. For this, thank you to my followers and members of my groups for all you bring to me and for allowing me to create and be part of a community. Furthermore, my husband has been running his own business for over a year now. It is a huge learning curve for both of us, but the pride we feel that he has been able to support our little family and be creative in his field of work is something we are both very grateful to have the business support in a fragile economy. We have all we need and many things that we want.
- Health. Although this has been a trying year for me health-wise, I am still here. All surgeries have been successful, and I am well on my way to healing. Things could have been much worse, and for that I am truly appreciative. I am still responding well to my MS medication and seem to have kept my condition stable even through surgeries. Mental health wise, I have a therapist that I deal with that is compassionate and manages to help me work through rough times that arise. I also have numerous tricks up my sleeve to deal with dark times that appear. I have learned so much this past year and found many skilled health care workers that help me find my path when the journey gets foggy.
Thank you all so much for bearing witness to my triumphs over this past year. It is truly cathartic to put all of your blessings on the page or on a website in this case. I hope you all have a holiday that is filled with love and laughter. I hope you find a bright light to help you through any darkness that appears. Most of all, I hope you find happiness and peace over this season. I will be taking a few weeks off to be totally present with friends and family over the next two weeks.
See you all in 2020!
Much love always,
Christine
anundefinedlife.com 