Thankful Thursday

What am I thankful for today?

* an hour and a quarter visit with Heather and Graeme. She makes me think. He makes me laugh.
They both make me enormously happy.

* Lunch with a friend who is moving away from Charlotte later this summer. I will certainly miss my dear friend, Kirk.

* Laughter, conversation, and plan-making with Gibbs.

* Receiving a text with a photo of my children and Karen's children together, a photo taken about 15 years ago. My, oh my, the years have flown.

* Texting with Lisa and catching up on our lives.

* Email from Paul, Amy, Andrea, Sheila, Bill, Noemi, Mary, Cara, Michelle, Debby, Judy and Katie.

*** Are you sensing a theme here? I have fabulous, supportive, loving, attentive friends.
I am running out of words of gratitude to them and for them. Truly I am.

* I am grateful for Kristiana who cooks so often and makes fresh, green juices for us to drink.

* I am grateful for Daniel, who makes me laugh and cringe and who still manages to talk me into cutting his toenails. Yes, I still cut my son's toenails - and he is 16 years old and taller than me. I find myself saying, "You are lucky you're so cute" very often.

* I'm grateful for Steve, my husband of nearly 22 years (our big day is this coming Saturday), who dotes on me, makes me laugh, and still loves me, even though I am boobless, wombless, and until recently also hairless

* I'm also grateful for:

- ceiling fans
- remembering to take a sweater into heavily air-conditioned spaces
- that Spain won the soccer game today over Italy
- a noticeable reduction in the neuropathy (numbness) in my fingers and toes over the past two weeks
- deep sleep
- the two farmer's markets we recently discovered
- recently picked, local vegetables - delicious!
- knowing that I'm giving my body healthy food
- having the means to buy that healthy food
- being able to do all the exercises and activities my physical therapist has assigned me - and having no pain while doing them.

Speaking of which --> Yesterday the kids and I went to a neighbor's house to swim. Several times, I swam from one end of the pool to the other underwater. I pushed Daniel around on a float. I swam under his float. I chased my daughter and poked at her legs underwater. I had an absolute blast.

Later while standing in front of the mirror putting on lotion after my shower, I looked at the scars on my chest for quite a while. Suddenly I realized that NOT ONCE during the entire hour or so I spent in the pool did I think about kanswer or chemotherapy or surgery or scars. NOT ONCE did I feel any pain or discomfort. There was absolutely NO restriction to my movement, my swimming strokes, or anything I wanted to do. I hadn't thought about it at all on my way to the pool or once I got there. I just jumped in and swam.

Even after the traumatic drug treatments, radical surgery involving the amputation of several parts, this body of mine is healing and restoring itself a little bit at a time every day. The human body is a miraculous machine. I hope you are awed by the wonder that is your body as well. Despite the aches, pains, illnesses and difficulties we all face, even when we eat terribly, don't drink enough water, and make unreasonable demands on them, our bodies carry us forward and do their best to take good care of us. 

I cannot express how grateful I am that my body is recovering as well as it is.
I cannot express how grateful I am to have come this far on this kanswer journey.
I cannot express how grateful I am to be able to use the k-word less and less in my daily life.
On this final Thursday evening in June, I am filled with inexpressible gratitude and joy.
Thanks be to God.