Gratitude

I hope readers don’t find this latest post completely self-congratulatory. In fact, if anything I want to acknowledge the amazing work done by the ThinkFirst organization. Facilitating ThinkFirst’s great work is the NH Chapter Director Zoe McLaen and some amazing OT’s from Northeast Rehabilitation Hospital Network who present along with me!

Regardless, as I drove down the road a couple of days ago I had to recognize how far I’ve come. Although, I seem to forget how to do most household things and certainly laundry on the 3 hour flight down here!

Although life has been quite dynamic with births, deaths, struggles, heartbreak, and even some success over More Than a Speed Bump’s lifetime; it’s been the stable aspects that have really made living anything resembling a productive life of purpose possible for me.

I know, it’s awful early on a Monday morning to be dropping emotion-state describing terms from the field of Psychology. But oh well, “I just can’t shake this feeling” (unintentionally stealing the lyrics from countless songs over the years)!

What would having healthy gratitude mean for the way I’d live my life and what the heck do I mean by “Cautiously Grateful?”

I’ll admit it, I tend to overthink things which I suppose is ironic considering the brain injury. Speaking of that, here’s an totally unrelated memory that just was triggered: It was probably 4 or 5 years ago when I was speaking about living with a brain injury to a bunch of 1st and 2nd graders. With complete innocence, a young boy in the first row whose arm shot up so fast he could barely remain seated asked, “If you have a brain injury, can you still think?” You have to love the curiosity and honesty of a 7 year old! Anyways, now back to The Winter Blues…