The day before Thanksgiving, I had given myself the assignment of writing some words about what I was thankful. However, I did not write the essay. It wasn’t that I couldn’t think of people and things I was thankful for, I have a bounty of wonderful people and advantages in my life. In fact, I have so much to be thankful for I couldn’t zero in on one thing in particular. And being thankful for my whole life seemed too big. I also felt so cliché. Isn’t everyone thankful for friends and family? Don’t we all click glasses over for the roof over their head and the food on our table? Perhaps not everyone, but those of us with the luxury to have time to pause and be think about that which we are thankful.
I skipped the essay because everything I could think of to write about didn’t need to be said. Everyone could see that my life has many things and even if I wasn’t always in a thankful mood, I am sure others can look at me and think, “She’d better appreciate all that she has!” No one needs me to confirm that I lucked out in life.
But then I had one of those karmic reminders of all the little things that I don’t even bother to acknowledge with thanks because they are perpetual. I took a misstep and twisted my ankle badly. In order to remove any suspense to this simple writing, I will tell you it was just sprained and I was issued some crutches and sent home to rest.
The first thing I realized I was thankful for was not just my husband as a whole person, but I was thankful for his kind and caring personality. He rushed me to the ER with such urgency you would have thought I was in labor or had a collapsed lung. He checked me into the ER and sat with me even though he could have easily said he would come back for me once I had been seen. For him this was a ridiculous notion that a husband would leave his wife but I realized some husbands would. I was thankful I had him has a husband and not someone else.
The next thing I was thankful for was health insurance. I don’t want to get into the whole health care debate in depth because I am just not educated to say how it should all work. I know was thankful we had health insurance because the decision to go to the ER was not a difficult one since the pain in my ankle and foot was bad enough that I couldn’t put weight on my foot with out gritting my teeth. I know for someone without health insurance they would have had to really weigh if it was worth it to spend the money to go to the ER or if they should wait it out and see how things went. Though it ended up being nothing and I probably could have just gone home, the peace of mind of having an x-ray made me rest better when I got home.
The last thing I was thankful for was how easily I normally get around. Though I have lovely crutches from the hospital and even after an hour was getting around pretty good on them, it isn’t the same as walking. I am currently confined to the couch because the effort on using crutches is only worth it if I really need to do something like use the restroom. I tried to get up and get myself some breakfast (as my kind husband had to leave for a short time for some errands) and what would have normally taken me 5 minutes took about 15 minutes. I will be probably relying on the kindness of my husband for the next few days while I become intimately acquitted with what is on TV and various websites.
I was thankful before this little bump in the road. Thankful for my friends and family. Thankful for my overall health and well-being. Thankful for the general bounty that is my life. But the misstep allowed me to bring some of the details of my wonderful life into sharp focus. I am thankful for that as well.