I was reminded yesterday during a conversation that sometimes we are fighting so hard for each good day or moment, that we are always looking for the silver linings, looking for the things we have to be grateful for. Yet somehow in all of that the one thing that I have forgotten to acknowledge and give thanks for is my body.
Yes, this broken, often unwell piece of equipment, and I, like I am sure many others when giving thanks for things forget to give thanks to our bodies. For all that it manages, if we think about it, I may not be able to multi-task any longer, I may struggle with a lot of day to day things, but if I stop and look at how much my body has to multi-task still even though it’s broken and hurting, not only from the Dementia but all the other things many of us with dementia have that complicate things even more, like cerebral vascular disease, hypertension, a rare type of angina, and on and on it goes.
Amidst all of this, while struggling with the Dementia that is forging in my brain, the magnificent brain is still multitasking every single day, keeping all those parts running, and maybe they don’t run perfectly anymore but none the less it runs. It runs well enough that I can still sit here and write, it runs well enough that I somehow make it to meetings and give speeches, well enough that I managed to write a book.
Perhaps I miss appointments or get the days and times wrong, perhaps, I make more mistakes, perhaps I can no longer multi-task, but while I am not my body is. I have ( or my brain has) given me the tools to adapt and adjust my life to keep running, maybe not in the fashion it once did, but I am still here and I am still standing.
So should we not take the time when we are thinking of all the things to be grateful for when we are giving thanks for so many things, should we not be including thanks to our bodies. For it is in fact the very piece of us that is broken, our brain, our bodies, that somehow are still doing all the work, to allow us to still be here.
So today after a very short one day reprieve from pain as I am sitting waiting for my doctor’s appointment today, after another sleepless, exhausting night, trying to manage the pain, I will be saying a thank you to this body for allowing me another day. Another day that I can write, spread kindness, share joy, enjoy friends and family, yes today exhausted or not I am here because my body is deciding to keep running, maybe not on all cylinders but it’s running, and that’s a lot to be grateful for.
Chrissy's Journey 