A New Gratitude Attitude

As a family tradition, on Thanksgiving each member of our family sits around the meal table and states several things we are grateful for. There's always the familiar answers of "family, health, employment, safety". This year, however, my gratitudes were a little different. Oh sure, I am always grateful for my family, our health, our safety and livelihood, my relationship with the Lord, but this year it was the little often unrecognized blessings I wanted to give thanks for.

Recently I spent several days in the hospital confined to a tiny room and an uncomfortable bed. As this was right before the Thanksgiving holiday, my stay gave me plenty of time to think. Here are a few of my "Thanks" this year:

I'm grateful for a bed that I can sprawl myself out in. I'm grateful that I can toss and turn in my sleep without the worry of tubes getting twisted, or pulled out of my arm, and alarms going off. I'm grateful that I can sleep peacefully without someone waking me up every 45 minutes to take my vitals, ask me a question, clean my room, check on my temperature, or shoot me with a needle. I'm grateful for comfortable pillows and a soft mattress. I'm grateful that when I have to use the restroom, I don't have to announce it, make sure someone is watching me, and wait for them to measure my "donation" to make sure it is sufficient. I'm grateful that I can eat food that actually tastes good. I'm grateful that only the people I like surround me in my home, not loud, obnoxious people who are constantly complaining. (Oh wait, maybe I do have that in my home - I have kids, you know.) I'm grateful that, in general, I feel good, can move about and do things, and have a lot of freedom. And one more thing - I'm grateful that the Lord blessed me with this hospital experience because when I am a nurse I will remember what it felt like to be so sick and dependant, so helpless and uncomfortable, and so happy when I finally regained my health.