today's gratitude (breast cancer)

Yesterday, in the middle of our revelry, while I was wearing a costume and adjusting my sons' costumes, I was told that a mom I know just went into hospice. She has had stage four breast cancer for almost a decade. She used to be an anchorwoman; pretty, accomplished, well spoken, admired. After she got sick, her husband had affairs, then left her, but would not grant her a divorce, refusing to pay for her medical care...she has been a lonely, embittered skeleton walking among us for all these years.

This sort of thing, more than an earthquake in Chile, makes my gratitude supremely accessible.

I am so thankful that I am still here today, healthy, able to watch my children growing up, able to play with them, carry them, snuggle with them until they are too old for that, and then hopefully, continue to hug them every day as they sneak up toward eye level with me, and beyond...

I know that people who grew up in Nassau County, where I did, and especially those descended from Eastern European Jews, as I am, are particuarly susceptible to developing breast cancer. I take good care of myself, don't carry stress bottled up, exercise regularly, maintain a healthy weight; I spent almost five years breastfeeding (total) and get annual mammograms, as much as I hate them, and try to remember to do self exams as well. But it's out there. We do not really know what causes breast cancer. And for all the women we know who have fought it and won the battle, it is still a very deadly disease.

So, I will just give thanks today for all that I have. I am so glad to be here. So very grateful.