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Monday, September 10, 2012

Some Days You Need A Little Perspective!

So.........I have been waiting for this day for quite a while.  Not because it is anything exciting and fun, but because I kind of dreaded it's arrival, even though I know it has to be done.

You see, tomorrow I have to go into the hospital to have a not-so-pleasant procedure done, and today I have to prepare for it.  This prep involves me ONLY consuming clear fluids all day. Now I like my food, and the thought of only having fluids, kinda wrecked my day even before it started.  In trying to be positive and looking for the 'bright side', I thought, at least I can have some strawberry or raspberry or maybe even grape jello........THAT will make this bearable.  Yeah well, when I went to the pharmacy yesterday to pick up the meds that I needed to 'help' in the prep, he told me that I was not allowed to have anything that would have a red or purple dye in it, as that could effect my procedure. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT??? The only thing that was going to get me through this torture and now that was taken away!!!

So I trudged (and that is the best way to describe it at that moment) to the grocery store to look for my other choices in jello.  Nothing red or purple left me with orange, lime and lemon.......all good flavours in their own rite, but NOT in the jello world (that is unless another certain clear fluid is added, and I didn't think that would be allowed, although it would have helped GREATLY with my mood!). I stood there and stared lustfully at the red and purple packages and begrudgingly took the citrus options, then moped my way home.

Because I knew that I most likely wouldn't be feeling that great with this prep, I had planned for a quiet day at home to myself, but now all I can think about is the chicken that I have in the fridge, or the jar of peanut butter in the cupboard.  Have you ever noticed how many fricken food commercials there are on television??? My newsfeed on Facebook is full of amazing recipes and pictures of what people had for lunch,  or statuses about what they are looking forward to at dinner, and forget about me signing into my Pinterest account!!! FML!!! I am walking around here like a caged wild cat! Hmmmmm........here kitty kitty kitty...........NO NO NO........that's just the hunger talking!!!

As I sat here this morning, forcing down the first bowl of jello, that just was NOT hitting the spot, thinking about how I usually have my gigantic cup of sweet tea (with cream) to start my day, I saw this picture that a friend posted on Facebook...........and then I felt ashamed!


Ok........so I am being 'inconvenienced' for a couple of days and can't eat and drink what I would like, but there are more people than I can possibly even imagine that would kill to be in my position.

I have a pretty decent roof over my head, a warm bed to sleep in, food (when I can eat it) in my fridge and the means to get more when I need to, and my inconvenience is due to the fact that I have access to healthcare and doctors to take care of me, where others have no idea what that would be like. Sure I am feeling rather crappy at the moment, but I still have more health than a LOT of people, and my feeling of crappiness (is that word?) will pass, but many other peoples will not. There are a lot of people that would think that my dreaded bowl of jello is a delicacy. So instead of sitting here and feeling sorry for myself and what I can't have today, I have decided to re-focus my thoughts on all the great things that I have the fortune of having in my life. One of the biggest..........having clean water to drink......what a delicacy THAT would be for a lot of people in this world!

It's easy to be grateful when everything is going rosy and you're feeling on top of the world, but as I found out today, it means a lot more when you can still be grateful when you feel like crap. So the next time I get the urge to complain about how 'bad' I may be feeling, or how 'inconvenienced' I am about whatever, I need to pull out this picture.........I may even have to print it out and post it up just as that 'gentle' reminder on those days when gratitude is a challenge. 

Do you take stock everyday of things that you are grateful for?  I do, I have a journal that I write in every night before I go to sleep and tonight, I think there will be a few more things added to the list.