November 24th - Health

Some families don't even think about their health, 

they have never had to because they've never been in poor health.

It was never that way for my family, 

at least not after Shelby came along.

Once we found out she had Spina Bifida when she was in the womb, 

we didn't know what was going to happen, 

but we knew a healthy baby was the one thing

 that was not going to happen. 

They told us to abort, they told us she wouldn't live long and if she did she would be a vegetable...When she was born my dad and Dr Jones gave her a name and a blessing, not knowing if she was going to make it out of surgery. 

Shelby was always a miracle baby.

Defying the doctors expectations.

Good health to our family were surgeries, hospital visits, 

catheters, daily medication, therapy, braces...

Good health meant something very different to us.

So if you have good health, and all your babies are healthy, 

you have so much to be grateful for.

And if you're like we were, you still have so much to be grateful for.

Start Quote

At this time of year our conscious attention often turns to 

what we DON'T HAVE rather than WHAT WE DO 

- and for a very good reason. 

The season of nonstop shopping has arrived.

With Thanksgiving only just behind us, the race to get ready for the next round of holidays begins. No sooner have we celebrated the season of plenty than, with the advent of the first official days of Christmas shopping, we enter four frenetic weeks of looking finding, buying and ordering

 - but not for ourselves.

We feel overwhelmed by a season of lack.

So before we head to the mall, it would do our souls good to have a reality check, in the form, not only of counting our blessings, but of focusing on them.

Money is going to have to buy a lot in the next few weeks, 

but it can't buy the gifts that count most: 

good health, a loving and supportive marriage, healthy children, 

the fulfillment of creative expression, and inner peace.

We forget this, not because we're ungrateful louts, 

but because we get distracted with the razzamatazz of real life. 

Now is the time to remember...

The blessing we'll meditate on today is health. 

We can't buy good health, no matter how much money we have.

We can purchase the best medical treatment available in the world, 

but good health is not for sale. 

Health is a priceless gift from Spirit 

that most of us take for granted until we become sick.

"One of the most sublime experiences we can ever have is to wake up feeling healthy after we have been sick," Rabbi Harold Kushner reminds us in Who Needs God. "Even if it is only relief from a headache or toothache, the health we take for granted most of the time is suddenly seen to be an incredible blessing."

Today, realize if you have nothing else but your health, you are a wealthy woman. If you have a healthy mind, a healthy heart, and reserves of stamina and creative energy to draw on, the world is literally lying at your feet. 

With your health you have everything.

But health is not just the absence of sickness. 

Good health is vitality, vigor, high energy, emotional equilibrium, 

mental clarity, and physical endurance.

These are the gifts to pray for... 

Ask and you shall receive...

Ask and be specific. 

Today, why not ask for the creative and physical energy you'll need, not just to survive the holiday season, but to enjoy it?

End Quote

If you are in poor health, whether acute or chronic,

I assure you it can be worse.

But at the same time, it can't.

It'll only be worse if you make it so.

I have a firm belief that this life is not the end, 

that this life is just part of the journey.

This life is a test, and what you make of it counts.

We all will face trials of some kind of health setbacks, 

some just more than others. 

And they all suck. A lot. 

Being sick is no fun.

But if you get better, or you learn to live with it, 

and can be happy and grateful, 

well then you have all the more reason to be grateful.

And if you die, then there is no more suffering, no more pain...

you just get to take the next step of the journey.

Poor health isn't the end of the world, 

it's only the worst thing ever if you make it so.

Good health on the other hand, 

we should never take for granted. 

It is a miraculous gift to breath everyday.

To touch, to see, to feel...

To live.

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Gratitude Journal

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1) My good health. Even though I live with depression, it's something that I'm learning to live with. Some days it really sucks, but the sucky days make the good days all the more bright and wonderful. I am so grateful for this wonderful body God has given me, pain, trials and all.

2) Shelby. I'm so grateful that she was who she was. I grew to love physical therapy because of her. I learned to be caring as I helped care for her. I learned that everyone's version of normal is different, there is no one standard normal. Good health is what you make it. Shelby taught me that.

3) My faith and testimony. I can't even imagine how dark this world must appear to those who believe this is the end. If you get sick, and you die, and that's it. I'm so grateful for my eternal perspective, it helps me assess and endure trails so much easier than when I lose sight of it.

4) Black Friday shopping. Robbie and I went around 8 in the morning, we always go looking for a few little things. We scored on movies big time, as always. The only movie that we didn't get was Trolls, which was very sad, but considering we got like 20 movies for anywhere from $2-4 a piece, I'd say the one we didn't is pretty minimal.

5) Indy. She makes life grand.