Thursday, August 04, 2011

Migraine and Gratitude

Do you know how difficult it is to transcribe those letters when you have a migraine? I commented on a few blogs this morning and had to do the WV over and over again because I could not get it right.

I have always been afraid I would wake up one morning with a slight memory failure. The memory lost would be all my passwords. I would be able to do nothing. I would not be able to use my computer at work. I would not be able to close my garage door. I would not be able to get any money out of the ATM. I would not even be able to pay my bills! In the good old days, I could use the same password for everything and there was no danger of forgetting. But now, we have strong passwords, that must be changed often... and I have to write them down. There are little post-it notes with strange words on them all over my desks at work and at home - and in my daytimer. If I had that mini-stroke, I would not know which notes belonged where.

I have a friend who had a terrible accident years ago. He had a serious brain injury among other serious injuries. After the accident, his wife stood at his bedside, wondering if he would live. She told me that once she thought he would live, she was worried he would not remember that he is an alcoholic. And that he would not remember the blessings of his sobriety, and what he needed to do each day to keep them. But he did not forget. He is still sober. And he is still grateful, every single day. Every single day he proclaims "This is the best day of my life!!!" And he means it.

I think sometimes we think that gratitude is a feeling. But it isn't. It is an exercise. Those gratitude muscles need to be worked, so they get strong and stay strong. And just like exercise, once we are in the habit, we couldn't consider skipping it. I don't want to skip gratitude. No matter what. Can I be grateful for a migraine? probably.

I think today my life's password will be:
gR8fully s0b^r.

4 comments:

Lou said...

Did you see the movie "127 Hours"? The guy's mother tried to get into his computer to see if he had a maps or anything that would help locate him. Of course, she didn't have the password. She tried all sorts of combinations, but couldn't get in.

After I read that, I got the free program LastPass. I gave my husband the master password, and at least he can get to everything else should I go missing while running alone in the woods:) Great program, very secure, I recommend it.

BTW, thanks for the note, your neighbors are freakin' nuts.

Syd said...

I hope that the migraine goes away. I don't like those little word verification things. Don't use them--instead I just moderate comments.

Scott M. Frey said...

MC, you have this ability to just fetch me up sharply in ym tracks and make me think. For that, I am so grateful to have gotten to know you here in the blogosphere.

I love the notion (and fact) that gratitude is NOT a feeling, it's an exercise. So many things about life are misconstrued to be feelings, and that leads to so much misunderstanding and pain. GREAT post!

I am also going to go make sure all my passwords are properly documented and stored ;-) I hpe your migraine passes, my friend.

dAAve said...

I like your password.

I keep a file of all my ID's and passwords. Hayden has a copy too, just in case.