Gratitude

The gift of simply being alive

sun casts long shadows
rising over day’s sharp rim
mountains doze in blue

Returning home from my dawn walk on the trails, I am always struck with gratitude at this long view toward the Sandia and Ortiz mountains. My spirit expands, my heart sings. I am home.

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The things I am grateful for today are simple: I am alive and breathing, and I am still able to walk my morning loop on the trails in my neighborhood, a high-desert grassland dotted with venerable, if very short—oneseed juniper and piñon pine trees.

Yesterday was my annual physical, and as my doc listened carefully to my words and my body, and went over my test results, I felt both held and heard. And grateful to be here. I am 67 years of age, which may not seem like a big deal to you. But to me, achieving 67 is a miracle.

I live with Lupus, an autoimmune condition that is often fatal, and has no cure or straightforward course of treatment. I have outlived the prognosis I was given when I was originally diagnosed by four decades now—forty bonus years of life. I have lived with Lupus longer than I have lived with anyone or anything else in my life.

Those years have not come easily. Staying as well as I can required (and still requires) a lot of work in mindfulness, stress reduction, careful daily exercise, managing my diet and my life pace and my work, and most importantly, listening to what my body has to say and adjusting my life to accommodate what I hear and discern.

I’m not perfect. I often forget that I need to be mindful and listen within. When I go beyond the limits my body can handle, my systems let me know. Forcefully. All heck breaks loose—my lungs spasm, my kidneys go on strike, my skin splits in tiny painful cracks, or my joints ache and freeze up. It’s not pretty. But it gets my attention, and I slow down, de-stress, heal up and resolve to do better (again).

And here I am. Thriving, happy, still navigating this life with as much love and compassion as I can.

Hence my gratitude for simply waking up today, and being able to walk my beloved high-desert at dawn, when the coyotes are singing themselves into their dens to sleep, and the sun is beginning to chase night from the dome of the sky. I am resolved to reciprocate for this gift of life as I go through my day.

What are you especially grateful for today? And how will you pay that gift or those gifts forward? Hit the comment button below and let us know!