Coming off a Thanksgiving season I wasn’t sure we’d see, led into by watching the movie The Secret, it occurred to me last weekend that I did indeed have much to be grateful for as we approach the end of this wild 2010:

1.       In today’s excruciating economy, having a job, even one where I’m not always treated well on a regular basis. Man, do I have muscles now! Bring it on!

2.       Finding a caregivers’ support group to help me with the chronic illnesses and the resulting negative attitudes of my husband.  I’ve learned there are about 50 million unpaid caregivers in this country, most of them spouses or adult children, laboring with little respite, less help, and fewer thanks.

3.       Having a much-dwindled retirement account to dip into, in order to buy a small notebook computer during the enforced recuperation of my PC tower. It has saved my sanity while four months of no improvement with the PC continued to lengthen in a scary fashion.

4.       Finding the energy to start sorting through the stacks of paper piled up in my writer’s office. Even throwing out as few as three sheets of paper a day has made a visible impact. Yay! Let me live another decade to complete this task. It is worthy of Hercules!

5.       Researching and realizing that some of the prescription medication I’ve been on for years has made me far more ill than I was ten years ago. Therefore, I’ve been cutting back on the dosages of my own volition.