Day 14: Appreciation

Reverb10 asks, "What’s the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it?" Tough to pick just ONE. I truly appreciate the freedom I have thanks to my gamble (investment) in my government job. I stayed put and it paid off. Now I have early retirement and the ability to do things I truly love -- like writing, T'ai Chi and other hobbies. I would say Freedom is number one, but without good health that wouldn't really matter. So I have to say during the past year I most appreciated my health and mobility. I am truly grateful to feel good, breathe freely, walk, and even run if I want. My knees are not hurting, my teeth are not aching, I can see, hear, dance, do T'ai Chi and probably even skate if I tried.

I truly appreciate health. It's not all luck or a fluke that I feel good. Like any other success, it takes effort. I exercise, move around a lot, walk the dog, I quit smoking nearly four years ago (yes, Feb 2007.) I often calculate how many "cigs" I have not smoked. At ten a day (which is about what I smoked when I stopped), that's around 14,000 cigarettes NOT smoked. And, I'm told at this point my lungs have fully recovered. Have my arteries? I'm working on that with better diet and 10,000 steps a day. I often wear my pedometer and try to hit 10,000 steps. That's about five miles. If I don't walk, then I do yoga or pilates, something to keep moving. My doctor laughs because I was far from a health nut for many years. I was more the "Party Queen." Now I find pleasure in feeling healthy and active, not sucking on cigarettes or getting drunk. I give thanks every day and celebrate LIFE!