Like most people, I sometimes get frustrated with the complications of day to day life and have to calm down and try to look at things as a big picture sort of thing and realize that the things that are really getting under my skin are rather minor things indeed.
not that long ago my family got a bit of a scare when a sibling of mine had to have brain surgery because of something strange that was discovered inside her skull after weeks of bad headaches and finally going to a doctor to check it out. She survived and is fine now, but there are a lot of ways that this could have ended very badly, that's for sure.
It can be a bit tough in USA, but if you have headaches that don't seem to have an explanation for a long period of time in a row you really NEED to get and get that checked out regardless of the expense. There ARE affordable options in almost all communities including my own where clinics operate at very low or no cost for diagnostics. Now the actual surgery can be another situation entirely of course, but there are programs to help with that as well - charities and what not. The medical Billing system in the United States if fucked though, I am not denying that but it is a conversation beyond the scope of what I want to talk about today.
The blessings I am referring to instead are the ones about where you and I haven't come down with some horrible illness or even worse, one that we didn't catch in time and then it ends up ending us very quickly.
There is a story about a guy that I knew that was always a party guy. I would see him from time to time because he came from "legacy money" and even though he never really did much on his true own, his family money turned everything that he did into a mid-level success. he had his interests such as preserving marine life in the sounds and off the coast of North Carolina, and this was his only job. He was passionate about it, but there was no denying that if it wasn't for the family money, there is no way that this thing would have carried on for as long as it did. He partied his entire childhood, he partied his entire adulthood, but then after his daughter was born he decided that he wanted to stick around for a bit longer to see her grow up and he "flipped a switch" and completely changed his life. He stopped drinking, he started making much healthier choices as far as his food was concerned, and he was even out on long walks to get his steps on on a daily basis.
It was extremely admirable and things were really looking up for him and we were all excited for his fantastic change in direction. Then on vacation in the UK he started feeling drained out of nowhere and ended up going to a hospital while he was there and he died right there in a hospital in London. He had some sort of brain bleed and they couldn't get it under control.
We find is sadly ironic that this guy lived the life of a rockstar for 30 years and it wasn't until he tried to be healthy for the sake of his family that health problems got him.
next up we have a girl that I went to high school with and was a confidant of mine for all of those important 4 years. I will admit that I fancied her, but didn't have the balls to close that gap and I friend zoned myself pretty hard with this one. I accepted it though and we remained friends and stayed in touch occasionally seeing one another on holidays. She was a very accomplished signer and would perform "O Holy Night" at church every Christmas. It was like hearing an angel sing. She wasn't someone who stood out in the choir, she was something else entirely. She was incredible.
That was the one time of year my family went to church. I think that was true for almost all the other people that were there as well. We endured the rest of the service for the "halftime show."
She had recently gotten married and just had a baby when one day she was complaining about bad headaches. Then, just like my sister and the other two, she finally relented and went to the doctor to discover that she too had a brain bleed of sorts and just like my friend in the UK, they couldn't bring her back. She died that day and her daughter was less than a year old at the time.
There was no other indication of anything being wrong with her. She wasn't all that healthy in high school but beyond that she had been especially when she knew she had a child on the way. The photos I saw of her with her baby were the photos of pure joy and just a few months later her life was cut abruptly short before she made it to 40 years on this planet.
Both of these people didn't deserve this. I don't think there are many people out there that do deserve such a fate, but it definitely wasn't these two people.
So when life gets me down I sometimes need to take a breath and realize how good I actually have it. The worst hospital stints I have ever had have been to visit other people. I have only ever spent a single night in a hospital at any point in my entire life. The frustrations that I feel in my life are real, but when you stop and put things into perspective and realize how very fortunate you are to have your health, things take on a completely different meaning.
At least for a little while I am going to try to be a bit more thankful for my good fortune because honestly, it definitely could be a lot worse than it is.
