Gratitude Practice Nov 2018
A few thoughts on gratitude... because we made it!
If there is one thing I really really love.... It's checking both big and little tasks off my to do list. It's Saturday night and I'm laying on my couch in a bit of an exhausted and grateful daze. Burke, my love, is nearby and my crazy curly haired kid is memorized as she watches Peter Pan for the first time ever and I'm nothing but grateful to be at this point...of both life and the calendar. Sometimes the gratitude just kind of puddles...and when it does... I write so I don't forget how all of the details somehow seem to magically work together.
To say the last two weeks have been...full... would be a total and complete understatement...the better word has to be... nothing shy of a....whopper. So happy that it's 9:300pm on Saturday, Nov 3 because here is what our little three-some gets to check off our list:
-Meeting with an attorney to complete all end of life legal documents...Blech!
-Create presentation for upcoming professional conference...Google Slides for the win
-Spinal Fusion Surgeon for Burke....Yikes!
-Unplanned follow-up surgery to address subdural hematoma...
-Night in the ICU for Burke to ensure safety and success of surgeries ...I've just barely started to begin breathing again...like right now...
-More days and nights in the hospital...health insurance and medical science continue to amaze and inspire me!
-Medical clearance....hooray!
-Transition from hospital to home...deep breaths and fingers crossed!
-Sarah Kate's first school Halloween Carnival... nothing cuter than preschoolers on Halloween
- Facilitate group games for teenagers in my church congregation... because Youth Conference
- Church... because Jesus
- Laundry... because PJs are still not appropriate outside the house...why is this a thing?
- Work meeting to wrangle the creative passion of a collection of super talented community partners...slides and handouts and slides and handouts
- Vote... because America...is in need of a serious leadership overhaul...
- Accountability meeting with my stellar team who presented their findings on several big projects...mind blown!
- Halloween with my favorite little parrot...best night ever
- Tweak presentation for upcoming conference...so much clicking and clicking and clicking
- Facilitate large stratigic staffing meeting with several After school provider aka 75 of my favorite SLC educators... booyah!
- Follow-up meeting with neurosurgeon to check Burke's neck and THRILLED to see the new X-RAY indicating the surgery (#1 and #2) were both a success, no more nerve pain and use of arm has returned....big big big exhale
- Fill in at one of our sites due to never ending germs that are attacking our employees one by one... doing art with kids from 3-6pm IS my life's calling
- Quickly open conference presentation just to ensure we are good but sadly discover the file is missing...or corrupt...or...I have no freaking idea...cry in my office for a little season and begin re-creating it...from scratch... again...slowly after I lifted my head from off my desk ... .
- Attend professional conference...Ogden is beautiful in the fall
- Have dinner with brother and "special lady friend"... really fun night but so so grateful I'm no longer navigating the dating scene
- Finalize conference presentation...again
- Attend the second day of a professional conference and watch my staff totally kill it with 4 amazing presentations... YouthCity for the win!
-Eat lunch and hang with my stellar staff and remember how honored I am to call them colleagues and friends...work family for life!
-Present at a professional conference to a packed ball room full of eager and excited after school educators and leave energized and inspired...because the universe has been so generous to me and I love love love my career!
-Drive the hour commute home and soak in the totally beautiful fall foliage and feel grateful for color and trees and the twilight hours of autumn... because nature.
-Pick-up my kid from a cousin's play date...because family is everything.
-Park the car in the garage, take off work shoes, kiss my husband, eat some leftovers, squeeze my daughter and collapse on the couch.... because we... survived!
Check. Check and tripple check. I'm absolutely confident that everyone reading this tome could write up a similar list and there are so many people wrestling through lots and lots of bigger and more challenging things. And it's not lost on me of our overall ease and the comfort of our circumstances. Fresh running water. Good and ample and healthy food. Warm clothes. Heat. Plumbing. Functioning cars. The ability to read and write. Flexible and understanding employers. A warm and caring circle of friends who love us and cheer us on. A neighborhood full of kindness and faith. Parents and siblings who pray and serve and love and forgive and buoy up and listen and laugh and simply show up. A daughter...and an opportunity to be parents which has altered and shifted and lasered all aspects of our life. A marriage to a good and kind and loving and patient man who protects and provides and loves me...despite of me. So so so much to be grateful for. And in the last two weeks life and the universe have squeezed just enough and in the right ways to help us remember and realized just how lucky and blessed and cared for we really are. It's the hard days...weeks...that bring all blessings into focus and the big and small tasks noted above were simply the latest vehicle to teach and remind and stretch and inspire.
There is just something cosmic and Divine when so much of life just happens all at once and your people...they rally...and they gather...and they focus their prayers and energy and scoop you up and cheer you on and carry you through until the latest life surge finally settles...and if you are me...you check all of the boxes and finally rest as the challenges simmer and stew with the blessings and perspective and gratitude always seem to bubble to the surface.
Lots and lots of gratitude and love bursting through these silly little letters. Thanks to all...and to many