Day 14: I am thankful for healing.

I was looking back at Day 1 and read the part about how I wanted to be in a coma for a while to make it through everything that was happening to me.  I can thankfully say that I no longer feel that way!  In fact, I don't think I have had that thought cross my mind in months.  Life is good.  I am healing, although I am not healed.  It might always be a work in progress.  Stuff still happens and knocks me down but I am able to get back up a lot quicker than I could at the beginning.

So I am thankful for healing and the ability to continue down a path of healing.

Day 13: I am thankful for helpful people

I am thankful for helpful people.  Specifically, helpful men that can help me with the household jobs that I have always relied on a husband for.  Tonight my friend reset my sprinklers to actually work, so the atrocity in my front yard might actually resolve itself soon.  He also changed a battery in a smoke detector for me. 

There have been a number of great men in my life that have helped me out in the last 7 months.  My dad, my brother, my brother-in-law, my neighbors, my friends' husbands....I am thankful for all of them!  I try to do as much as I can on my own, but let's be honest--sometimes you just need a man to help you out! 

Feminists everywhere are dying right now, I know.  :)

Day 12: I am thankful for time.

Yesterday the kids and I went to say our final goodbye to their last great grandpa.  He is 86 and has lived a full life and is ready to go.  The kids did great and I think I made the right choice in taking them.  He was peaceful and joyful.  He knows where he is going and is looking forward to seeing his wife that passed away 9 years ago.  I am so glad we had a chance to say goodbye to him while he was still able to talk to us.

I have never been around someone at the end of their life.  It was an extraordinary experience.  I was struck by the happiness that seemed to surround him.  He wasn't lying there full of sadness and regret--he was embracing the situation and preparing to move on.  We should all strive to live a life that enables us to embrace the end of our life like that.