This time of the year, I often sit in a place of deep gratitude. Gratitude for life itself, for the opportunity to be present one more day, and for all the gifts that have been bestowed upon me. I work at taking each moment and savoring it, for I don’t know how long I’ll be here to enjoy this thing we call life.
So often, in our society, we go through life with the impression that we are invincible and that whatever disease there is out there will be cured by the time it reaches us. Billions are spent to look young and beautiful as if this will fend off the perceived indignities of age.
I lost friends and relatives to Vietnam and on our own streets before I graduated high school. I often lived as if I was “bullet proof and invincible.” However, there was a part of me that knew I had a limit — I just hadn’t yet reached it. I carry the scars of life and have never thought of plastic surgery because those scars are a part of me like laugh lines and my hair (which long ago turned grey).
Life is to be celebrated…just as it shows up in any given moment.
Thank you are the words I speak.
Gratitude is the feeling with which I live.
