Recognize.

A year ago to the week I was trying to get over the flu that was going around the city like wildfire. I could not remember being that sick ever. I found myself curled up on the sofa amazed at how much energy it took to get through one breath, honestly. It was an exercise in witnessing how much illness was present, as well as a reminder to be grateful for the knowledge that I would recover. I recognized that I was healthy, fit and would bounce back from the depth of how sick I was in the moment, and I also recognized that many people suffering illnesses and ailments do so chronically. I may have been fetal and trying to just breathe, but I was fully aware of how fortunate I was.

One year later I can be out in this extreme -30 degree cold and breathe. I can inhale without it hurting. I can be outside without having four layers of fabric covering my nostrils and mouth to take the biting sting out of the cold air before it fills up my lungs. I am so aware of my health, especially when I circle back to last year’s flu, and I am really, really grateful.

I went to the gym this morning and had an incredible workout. I saw a client for a mentoring session. I went to the osteopath for my monthly session and experienced her brilliance as she brought my body closer back to default settings. I saw friends and gave them a yoga class. I came home and made a delicious dinner that was healthy and warming on this frigid evening.

I am so grateful for the life I have. The life I have, in part, made happen with the decisions I have made for myself and the aspects of it that I had nothing to do with, that I didn’t earn but that ended up facilitating the degree of comfort and contentment I experience. I am aware of the privileges I have been afforded, and I am aware of how hard I have fought for the life that only I could have provided for myself.

All this to say that I’m grateful. To be healthy. To be warm. To be comfortable. To be fed. There are many who are not, and I truly believe that we are all potentially closer to the possibility of illness, homelessness, discomfort and hunger than we are to the riches and wealth that we believe our creature comforts will lead to, the ones we take for granted so unknowingly.

If you have muchness in your life tonight, be aware of it, and be grateful. We lose this gratitude for the basics and for the simple things when we take it all for granted, when we expect everything to fall into place, when we feel entitled to abundance. We are not entitled to any of it. We are blessed if we have it, and we work to maintain it and add to it if possible.

Know what you have and be grateful. I am.