Reestablish gratitude

My father’s short sight has gone, making reading and some close-up tasks impossible. He is 92 and otherwise healthy.

After stubbornly refusing to use mobile phone technology, he is now suddenly open to a mobile phone.

His wife has developed sudden, severe dementia, and has a large benign mass on her neck threatening vital functions. She is mostly lost to him, her memory a flicker.

This all within weeks. They live four hours’ drive away. 

Life. Turns in a heartbeat. 

My mother is living with us between homes. This is short-term. After she moves, my daughter moves in to save for her own place, a five-year relationship ended. 

None of this predicted or planned. 

Yet we insist we can drive agendas, establish timelines and achieve this, that and the other. What hubris!

I was talking to a client the other day who resigned from their high-pressure role in order to be more available to their seven-year-old son after becoming a single parent. I cheered them and their choice.

I listen to the news and hear a mother in Gaza try to ensure at least one of the thin mattresses she has for herself and her children is not soaked through. I cannot imagine life like that. Tents, inches of water. Cold. 

At the intersection of life is choice. How we respond. 

My father was bemoaning his condition, that it took 6 hours of waiting for the hospital people to attend to his wife. There was no fee for this, or her ongoing care.  

I think of the mother in Palestine. 

I check my entitlements and frustrations, I sternly speak to myself about my tantrums. I reach back down and reestablish gratitude. For my life. All of it.

Photo Taken January 1st 2018, Article published November 26th, 2025