grateful today

I finally saw a doctor yesterday who knows just what is wrong with me and how to fix it.  From the Chinese medicine perspective, it all makes sense actually, because my lungs are connected to my intestines.

I’ll spare you the details I’m not yet grateful about, here’s what makes me happy:

*I’m not crazy, my gut and skin and immune symptoms are related!  Take that oh one thousand MD’s who have mocked me!

*I had the foresight to set up a pre-tax health savings account this year, making some ongoing acupuncture more affordable.

*This doctor has office hours all weekend.

*I got teeny tiny needles in my face for sinus problems – and they’re still there!  She said “four days is great, four hours is helpful”.  I’m going to try to leave them in for my aerobics class, maybe it will make people stand further away from me.

*I don’t care about having needles taped to my face on Valentine’s Day.

*As this resolves, I’ll stop catching every virus or flu in the county.  Something about heating up my kidney fire.

-Katy

I’m in Philadelphia for the Buyers Market of American Craft. I drove down on Wednesday in what turned out to be a full-on blizzard.

I’m grateful that I made it safely, that I somehow stayed in the moment, and that my cell phone enabled me to make calls to you and M and get emotional and practical support, including weather radar readings and alternate driving directions when I got to Philly and found my exit closed off.

Also grateful that I had happy music and a book on tape, a jar of almonds, and bottles of water, all much needed during the seven and a half hours it ended up taking (twice the usual time).

Thankful for indoor parking at the end of the road, a comfortable bed, and room service. Scallion pancakes and stir fried green beans never tasted so good.

- Estyn

One of the great things about being sick all week is that I’ve finished Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project.  I really liked it.  I love her emphasis on setting clear & measurable goals.  She uncovers her own personal 12 Commandments and inspired me to think about my own.

Here’s a first draft of Katy‘s Commandments for Katy‘s Happiness:

Be Here Now

Be Careful What You Mock

Just Say Yes

Happiness is a Three Legged Stool – physical, emotional, & spiritual   (one leg missing, whole stool falls down)

This too shall pass (impermanence surrounds us!)

If I’m not failing, I’m not trying hard enough (I think I better re-write that one. “Not trying hard enough” is a phrase the Itty Bitty Shitty Committee says to me)

Don’t listen to the Itty Bitty Shitty Committee!

Better to listen to the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee!

Failure is normal

People want to help

Evil is boring

I’m not Cassandra, I’m Arty the Smarty

-Katy

-Katy

I’m still sick, but thank goodness the dog must be walked.  It was exciting to be outside, we got over a foot of snow in the past 24 hours.  Happy made me laugh out loud until I was coughing so hard even the brazen deer were startled.  She loves the snow, and mouse hunting underneath it.

I have a good life.  The landlord plows the driveway, I get paid sick days, I live with a happy dog, and there’s plenty of soup in the house.

-Katy

That title is in the spirit of “fake it til you make it” as I’m having a gigantic pity party for myself.  I’ve had a bad cold + fever for three days now, and I’m ridiculously miserable about it.  I need gratitude – STAT!

I’m grateful I noticed that my NyQuil liquid caps expired in 2007 before I swallowed them.  I think they include drugs that are illegal now.

I’m grateful for abundant hot water, the shower is the only place I can breathe.

I’m grateful I don’t have to drive to work – there’s a winter storm warning out there and we’re getting 5 or 7 or 10 or 12 inches of snow.

I’m grateful to be spending more time with Happy.  We got to walk after the sun came up, and today’s project is teaching her the command “Speak.”  Which comes easily to her, she’s pretty mouthy.

I’m grateful for BBC radio, Fresh Air, Netflix, and cable TV.  And the Ann Arbor Public Library.  And the fact that I got sick the day after grocery shopping.  For co-workers filling in for me.  For the chance to catch up on some reading.  And NAPS.

More great things about being sick:

*Don’t feel the need to wear make-up, pantyhose, or deoderant

*Got to watch Mr. Smith Goes To Washington during the day.  Jimmy Stewart filibusters for the forces of good!

*And my favorite: Too Sick To Exercise.  Yay!

-Katy

I enjoy my work, making jewelry. I like most of the tasks involved. But again and again I find myself procrastinating when it comes to polishing ear wires. (Italics make the words look how they feel to me, like something I want to push away.) So, as per typical, I left it until today, the last possible day, the day before packing the car to leave for my next trade show, to polish ear wires.

I wrapped a scarf around my neck and trudged down into the cold basement, procrastinated a little longer by hanging laundry, and finally stood still in front of the polishing wheel and got to work.

I was trying to “be here now”, thinking about how no task is onerous in and of itself, about looking for the gift inside the chore… I looked up and right in front of me, perched perfectly in the center of the window sill, was a dry garbanzo bean.

I laughed out loud.

You might not be aware of how awesome one dry garbanzo bean is, unless you’ve been stuck in a grump and a garbanzo popped you right out of your mood. Or unless you’ve watched two small cats entertain themselves for hours on end with this, their most favoritest of toys.

The basement bean had been knocked through a hole in the living room floor boards by the kittens and seemed to be waiting for this opportunity to pop me out of myself — enough to make the rest of the polishing task painless, and fast.

- Estyn

I have a love/hate relationship with meditation.  I had a formal practice for years, then no practice for years.  I’ve been complaining about meditation a lot lately, which may mean I’m about to start doing it again.

Today I’m grateful for this simple description of how to meditate from Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love.  She heard it from Ketut Liyer, her spiritual instructor in Bali.  “To meditate, only you must smile.  Smile with face, smile with mind, and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy.  Even smile in your liver… Too serious, you make you sick.”

-Katy

Continuing in the cute kitty vein — I am taking pleasure in the news that Maru, Japan’s famous cat, carries a blankie.

- Estyn

I’m grateful for the person who makes talking pet videos like this one featured on Cute Overload.  I’m surprised by how much joy this brings me.  He has (of course) a whole channel on You Tube if you’d like to watch more of the same.  May I recommend “Bad Kitten Mystic With British Accent”?

Simple pleasures.

-Katy