#reverb10 Day 30 – Gift
When I opened my email and read today’s #reverb10 prompt which comes from Holly Root, I knew exactly what I was going to write about.
GIFT:
This month, gifts and gift-giving can seem inescapable. What’s the most memorable gift, tangible or emotional, you received this year?
I touched on it here. Repetitive as it might be, I just wish to emphasise how much I meant what I wrote all those days ago.
When you have been ill and it is the type of ill that causes you to be on first name terms with your medical professionals and you know the nurses’ rotations off by heart at your local A&E and you wake in the middle of the night sweating cold droplets and decamp to the next room so as not to wake your partner by writhing around in pain and stifling yelps of agony.
When you have been the type of ill where surgery and discussions of surgery are the norm and words such as “adhesions” and “haemorrhage” and “collection of acid” are bandied about and chill you to the bone while making you feel lightheaded with disbelief and worry.
When you have been the type of ill where you don’t tell your parents or even your siblings everything because they worry and they worry HARD and your parents would move into your house and dote on you every second when they should be living their own lives and your significant other looks at you and you can read the regret and helplessness he feels for not being able to do anything to help.
When you cry yourself to sleep at night before a doctor’s appointment because you’re fully expecting the worst but you don’t tell anyone because this is a burden you feel you ought to shoulder by yourself…
…well, when you get good news, you have to do something with it.
And that was my gift this year. The gift of Good News in the form of (relative) Good Health.
I may have a way to go before I’m at optimum health and I may have to put in work and still spend a few evenings pacing the boards before seeing my doctor but being handed the decree that you’re well when you’ve spent years being unwell is akin to being given the key to the city.
Suddenly, the opportunities are endless and dreams can be opened like long-forgotten chests and explored once more.
Suddenly you have the chance to do that which you thought you might not be able to do again.
And that opportunity buoys you up like a million butterfly wings.
I may forget at times, that with which I have been blessed. But this? Well, this I cling to nurture like a seedling hoping that it will only grow.
It’s like Mark said, “A second chance is the greatest gift anyone can receive…”
And I plan to make the most of mine.
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Stereo. 20-something aspiring bon vivant. London based. Exceptionally Nigerian. Partial to snark. My default setting is "wry". Jeans and blazers are my uniform. Landlady. Speed reader, tuneless singer, hoarder of words, drinker of Schloer; I am suspicious of most people, have zero tolerance for tomfoolery, have a vast DVD collection, worship at the altar of Al Green, own too many bottles of nail polish, have small eyes, small ears and giant hair and owe approximately 86% of my awesome to the Parents Typewriter.
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We were both unbearably sick this last year. Let’s pray that getting better sticks so we can make a name in this big old world. Hugs.
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So glad you are better and at least on your way to optimum! My brother-in-law is currently in that place were you evidently spent many long, lonely months. I just got back from visiting him in hospital and it was hard to leave him there. Many thanks for this inspiring (as always!) post.
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I’m glad – so glad you got good news and are on the path to healing. Bless you! We so often take for granted – our good health when all is well. You’ve given us a precious insight into a portion of what you went through – my wish for you is continual healing, comfort and serenity.
Write, girl. Write like there is no tomorrow because you have an abundance of gifts that YOU give US!
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I for one am incredibly thankful that you’ll be around for a while. Since the start of Reverb10, I’ve woken up every morning looking forward to filling my brain with something insightful and witty, and you have yet to fail me.
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Yes, to health and second chances. May you continue to grow stonger every day. Thank you for being the highlight of my day with your writing.
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Wow…what a wonderful gift!! Tangible, physical, but with such abstract implications. Good health to you and all of us in the New Year, as well!
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Oh, so lovely.
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so glad you’re doing better
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i understand and join with you in thanks and recognition of health. what a wonder it is. and how easy it is to forget about when it’s good.
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I’m joining the chorus of those who look forward to your writing on a daily basis. I am also grateful for your Good News about your health, for without your health, what have you?
And you quoted me? I’m stunned and flattered….and thank you.
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Wonderful! You are pretty amazing.
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Wishing you days without thoughts for your health, nights of peaceful dreams and many more opportunities to share your wonderful writing. It has been a gift to us!
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You are a gift. Blessings to you for great health and vitality.
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YAY for such good news about your health!! I’m sorry for how hard it was for you but glad to hear it is getting better.
You’re right ~ that’s a wonderful gift!
Jeanine
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I really liked the refrain device you used here. It had me hanging on to each word. again.
(So glad for your good news!)
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Happy to hear you’re feeling well heading into the new year. Hope everything gets better and better.
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Health is such a precious thing, and I’m happy you’re in a place where you can say you’re in good health. And I’m grateful for the gift of being able to read your writing.
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I hear this post loud and clear. Having a clean bill of health is the number one gift any of us can receive.
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Yes, I know this place. I am so glad to hear that you are okay. Six years ago now I was sick, with something that in the end turned out to be completely fixable, but it was a year of hell getting there. And now I am grateful for every day that I wake up, every breath that I take, every moment that I live. Yes, I forget to be grateful for all of that sometimes, but I remember and I remind myself and then I breathe in my life.
Now I know where your old souledness comes from. And I am so glad to know you.
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Beautifully written, AS ALWAYS. Love you, happy new year!! xoxo
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Great Post as usual. It’s almost over, are you happy or sad?
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Wishing you a 2011 where you feel the freedom of health daily, where its gift is the wind under your spread wings and where you climb steadily to the perfect health of your future.
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