Expressing Gratitude

We often don't appreciate what we have until we lose it. Our bodies function on autopilot—we breathe, our organs do their job, and our limbs move without us thinking about it. Yes neurons will send signal from our brain to the muscle to move our arms or fingers, but we have no awareness of it, and take it all for granted until something stops functioning. And then, we really feel every movement, every discomfort, and every pinch of pain. (image by geralt)

 

I have an injured left arm. And up until recently, I never really thought about it much. It was just an arm. I'm now realizing how much work it did without me putting in an effort. I now feel every incremental shift.

 

Move the wrong way, and a searing pain runs through it. I can no longer sleep on my left side. Turning in my bed to sleep on my stomach is an agony, and don't even get me started on washing my hair, lifting it to pull my hair back, put on my clothes, drive as I turn the wheel, pick up grocery bags, and even type this post because when I drop down my elbow and use my fingers to type on the keyboard, I feel a sharp pain running through my entire arm.

 

I am now typing with my right hand, and my left arm is resting on ice. Hey, at least I still have one arm that works. And sorry if you see errors on this post. At the moment this is the best I can do :/

 

My family has offered to help. But you know how that goes. I would rather do everything myself without bothering everyone. I guess I'm grateful that I can function on my own. Of course, it's temporary, and I'll get better. I'll just drop a coin in my basket of bumps in the road. But what if I wasn't so lucky, and this was permanent? Yes, I would adapt, but what a shame that I did not appreciate my arm when it worked. Get my point?

It's important to make a mental note to be grateful everyday for all that we are, and all that we have. So, what are you grateful for? Write it down to remind yourself to be content, and to enjoy all the small moments in life. As Whoopi Goldberg's character says in the film titled Eddie: "It doesn't get better than this." (image by StockSnap)

 

Another Birthday

It turns out that I'm not so special and unique after all. I have met many people who have the same birthday as me. I guess you could say that they were my long-lost twins until I met them. My roommate in college, my former personal trainer and his brother, the hostess who recently greeted me at a restaurant in the Marina, my sister-in-law’s cousin, and my cousin’s fiancé and his brother, were all born on the same day as me. 

 

I’m guessing as I go through life, I will meet many more people with the same birthday. But alas, here I am going through yet another year. And not to sound morbid, but I am grateful for being alive. Many people much younger than me have passed away this year.

 

That’s why I want to live life to the fullest, and experience as much as I can. I know that there will be more offbeat days to come, but if I didn’t have days like that, I wouldn’t appreciate all the fantastic days. Anyhow, below are a few photos from one of my outings.

I arrived in the afternoon. Everyone had been waiting for me because my niece had put a note on this brownie that said - do not eat, but they all wanted to eat it (this reminded me of the episode of Three's company when Chrissy ate Jack's pie by accident). So, my brother rushed me to cut a piece so that he could get his piece. That is why you see a missing piece before I could take a photo. Ameh means auntie in Farsi.

A bunch of us went to The Landing in Westlake.

Tavalodet Mobarak means Happy Birthday in Farsi.