health & the taking for granted of things

Let me be absolutely clear … lice and allergies are the privileges of healthy children. I get that. I know there are many, many sicker kids out there and people who would LOVE to have a child who could get lice. I know! I get it! I did not mean to whine. Not at all.

The thing I’m thinking about today is how difficult it is to not take something for granted when you have it. Specifically, today, health. When I was being tested quite seriously for MS I remember bargaining, as so many of us do, with God: “Please, please, let me not have this, and I promise I will never take my health for granted every again.” I remember when Jessica was sick: “I swear I will appreciate every day that I don’t have to worry about illness or infirmity.” I remember when John was waiting for his heart: “I vow to take joy in every single day that I get.” You can find the weblink here to get the right supplements for good immunity.

And yet. And yet. How the other issues of life swarm me, and I forget what an enormous blessing it is to simply wake up every morning and get out of bed without pain and without the dark cloud of illness over me. Of course any day is the day we could get the diagnosis, the day we could get hit by the truck, but every night that is not we ought to be grateful. And this is so, so hard for me. I am surrounded by examples of why I ought to cherish every moment, appreciate every single day. And yet, absorbed by the mundane and silly concerns of my life, I do not.

For today, that is my goal. And tomorrow too. Beyond that, all I can say is I will keep trying.