Today is a GREAT day!
Or should I say, "Today is a GREAT-FUL day!" — see what I did there?
Today didn't feel so great actually. I mean, I've been sick for almost a week now. Every night I go to bed and I think, "Tomorrow! I'm going to wake up and feel 100% better and do all the things I want/need to do and it will be wonderful!" And every morning I've woken up to a new progression of this cold that I have — sore throat to runny nose to cough. I should be in the final stage now. Fingers crossed.
Other than being sick, I'm definitely missing my family and friends from home around this time. Thanksgiving isn't always the most consistent holiday with who's home I'll be eating at, but I've always been consistently in Los Angeles, and able to at least eat leftovers of my Nana's corn pudding (my faveee).
But by not being home, it makes me appreciate those that I care about even more. Those family gatherings that are usually taken for granted because they're convenient suddenly become very important.
Being sick also makes you realize who is currently present to take care of you. Like when my roommate Bekah, on her day off, went out and bought me medicine and made me soup. And my other good friend got me orange juice. And then today, despite putting myself under quarantine, I have some people visiting and my other roommate, Annemarie, baked me a sweet potato pie.
And a lot of my bad days can be about perspective, what I tend to focus on.
When April was here we got to see all this cool stuff, and do fun things and learn about this area I now call home, but it wasn't necessarily perfect. I haven't gotten to the Chattanooga day yet, but I just wanted to take a pause and say, we made it great. And by that I mean, we had a lot of gratitude for the things that did go right or the things that didn't go right but meant that other things went right, that it all turned out well.
Like when we got a flat tire as we were about to go home early and rest for the night. It meant that I had to drive under 50 MPH on the highway. It meant that we couldn't leave as early as we wanted to for Chattanooga the next day, which meant we also ended up missing the boat ride we already paid for (we were able to get a gift card so I could go another time), it meant paying for a new tire and figuring out where exactly to get a new tire.
But we were actually lucky. It happened at the end of the day. It didn't happen on the hour drive back from Cookeville. It didn't happen when we were on our way to Chattanooga, or even in Chattanooga. We were able to make time the next morning to change the tire. I had the money I needed. We got it changed and it wasn't a big deal.
April would turn to me throughout the trip and constantly say, "Today is A GREAT DAY!" in all her wonderful enthusiasm. We consistently focused on the good, the things we were grateful for.
That's why I love today. It is a day centered around gratitude. Gratitude for meaningful things in life. For me — the gospel, my family, my friends, and all the resources that have been made available to me.
Happy Thanksgiving y'all. Hope it's a great one ;)