Thanksgiving

Tomorrow I report back to the chemo chair.  But today, I’m enjoying my rambunctiously loud family as they compete, as we’ve always loved to do, to see who can talk over the other in a game of catch up on the latest happenings in each other’s lives.  It’s a lot of noise but I love the chatter. Today I feel practically good as new with no residual effects from the last treatment and can enjoy all the foods I love to eat like turkey with canned cranberry sauce, and sweet potato and yam casserole with the marshmallows, fruit salad with marshmallows, and mashed potatoes, classic green bean casserole and some awesome creamy Mac and Cheese, compliments of me.  We've got apple pie, and pumpkin pie and a whole bunch of calories packed in a gooey oatmeal cream cheese bar.  I could go on for days listing what’s on the menu, because we’ve got a Thanksgiving feast that would have made the pilgrims stand up and say “DA'AMN!”   I’m happy to say that I’m being an all out glutton today and I'm totally and completely enjoying this particular act of sinfulness without worry of weight gain.

                                                                 Me with sisters and nieces

And it would not be Thanksgiving if I didn’t give props to all that I have to be grateful for, like my family and awesome friends and colleagues who can make me laugh over silliness until my gut hurts, and the incredibly courageous women I’ve met online who have inspired me so much.  I'm grateful for my sons, who make me so proud, and my beautiful granddaughter, who has the same wacky sense of humor as her Noni.  I’m grateful for parents and a brother that taught me how to love unconditionally, and how to be courageous under fire.  I'm grateful for the brand spanking new hot red Coach bag my best friend surprised me with as an early Christmas present – it is my very first designer bag.  I’m grateful for chocolate chip cookies warm out of the oven, and cheese cake.  I’m grateful for the Hallmark channel which plays Christmas movies practically 24/7 during the season, and for Elvis whom I love to this very day.  I’m grateful that I woke up smiling this morning in anticipation of being converged on by family.  I’m grateful for Dilettante Mocha Café’s hot chocolate that is literally better than sex.  It is.  And you know what?  As crazy as it may seem to say, I’m grateful for cancer for opening my eyes wide so that I can truly appreciate my life and every one in it more than I ever did before cancer.
 

                                                                        Me and my sister, Lisa

Today, I’m not talking about the cancer, or the chemo, or thinking about anything related to my feelings or what the doctor said about this or that.  Today, I get to feel normal. 

                                                             Me and my great niece, Desiree

Happy Thanksgiving folks!  No matter what you are or will be facing in the future, I hope today is an especially good day.



Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

Melody Beattie