Luck and Gratitude

Bear with me for a rambling post, please. Lately I've been feeling a bit down. So many friends and loved ones are getting bad news all the time and we've had our fair share of it too. While ours isn't earth shattering, it does seem to add up rather quickly to one big mess of troubles.  Taken on their own, these things aren't really problems, more annoyances: One plumbing problem after another at our house, fleas on the cat, ants in the kitchen, broken this and that, root canals, and other literal and figurative lingering headaches that never quite seem to be solved.

It is so easy to wallow in the irritations of life. But that's why I'm so grateful for a day like today. I had some real heartfelt moments of contentment today and I want to remember that feeling, so I'm going to to write them down here. This way when all those troubles re-surface, and more bad news comes on it's way as it inevitably will, and the boys are stuck in a morass of bickering and complaining, I can look back at today and remember it with gratitude and love.

I've been thinking a lot about an important milestone in my life. Some of you might think it's the kids, or my marriage, but truth be told I think it was on July 4th, 2000 that my life veered into another direction. On that day I was heading out on a bike ride for a fun picnic with my then-boyfriend Paul and I got into a terrible bike accident that left me with an injured jaw, stitches in my chin, broken molars and serious road rash. I spent the next several years in and out of the dentist chair and recovering in various ways mentally and physically from the event. But what I have been reflecting on lately is what the ER doctor told me that night as she was stitching up my chin. She said I had just done the "Christopher Reeve" fall over the handlebars and it was basically amazing that I hadn't become a quadriplegic at that moment, or bitten off my tongue with the impact.

I'm not one for believing in fate, or angels, or anything of that sort but this ER doctor has been on my mind lately. What a different story these last 12 years would have been if any of those other possibilities had transpired.

Realizing how lucky I am to even be here, I want to really remember the wonder and joy of these simple moments today:

-- Spending  the afternoon in the garden while the boys climbed the bursting nectarine tree to pick those ripening fruits off the tall branches.

 -- Driving up to meet Paul for a work event and listening to Owen and Elliot playing Rock, Paper, Scissors in the back seat, giggling and laughing and enjoying each other's company the way only brothers can.

 -- Spending the afternoon in the park with all 3 of my boys.

I feel so lucky today, I'm going to ignore that pile of problems mounting up and enjoy this moment. Here and now.