Monday, February 10

Today I am grateful for:

No wind today, and sunshine.

Making it to the gym, though I didn't have a lot of time.

Getting to judge the local chapter of 4-H's speeches. I've done this several times now, over the course of a few years. It's fun to see the kids grow and become more confident. I don't have a lot of ties with the community, but once a year or so I get to do this.

This part isn't so much under the heading of gratitude. Lately it seems like a lot of people I know are either dying, or having health issues. I am 47, and some of my siblings are a lot older than I am, and some have had addictions issues and so on that make them seem a lot older. My sister's partner died in December, another sister's husband has been having issues with diabetes, another's partner is truly just quite old and frail, and now today I find out that another sister's husband is in the hospital with what might be lung cancer (they have to do a biopsy). Some friends of ours, the ones who have helped us so much with the house this summer lost a parent and a brother in the last 6 weeks. Lots of family for both my sweetie and I are getting frail and having serious health issues. I guess we're now at the stage in our life when we start losing a lot of people. It's funny how you can go along for years and years and everything feels like it will just go on like this forever, and all of a sudden, you see how old everyone has become, and you wonder how much time you have left. I know there's nothing new in this line of thinking, it's pretty much universal. I just don't know how to feel better about it.