Thankful Thursday

Why does perspective have so much to do with gratitude? I mean, really. Why can't we just remember how good we've got it all the time without having to watch things go to crap for people around us just so our lives can be jolted into perspective?

I have a mentor and dear friend who taught me the meaning of being a nurse. I have watched this woman literally take people home because they had nowhere else to go. I've seen her do an entire med pass from her electric scooter because that's what the patient's needed to have done. She gave me her own '#1 Mom' bracelet charm as good luck. When I moved she gave me a small figurine of Quan Yin, the Goddess of Compassion. She knows how to make everyone feel like the most important person in the world. And she's also one of the only people that I have allowed to continue to call me Yannett-y.

Over the last year she has lost her partner, most of her ability to walk, her independence, very close to losing her home, she has lost her job, her ability to work as a nurse, and she has recently gone on hospice for a very debilitating auto immune disease which will prematurely end her life.

I received an e-mail from her this morning with paragraphs filled, FILLED with all that she is grateful for. Her closing remarks were..."Be well my ever so vital family and friends!!! Cast aside all the ‘stuff’ that makes you worry and throw your arms in the air accepting all the joy heading right at you!  Its there!!!"

Seriously Wendy-lady? 

I don't think I'll ever be able to catch up to her example. If she is there when I get to the Other Side, I'll know I made it to the right place.