Thanksgiving, The Day After

Great day yesterday.  A time to take a few moments out to think about gratitude, and to celebrate the family traditions that go along with Thanksgiving Day.

Photo by M Clock

Fried turkey.  A day in the kitchen, working on the uniquely special meal all day, with it's attendant aroma.  Lazing around watching TV.  Some much needed lawn work to complete... not sure why I did it, I guess because "it was there" and it was such  nice day weather-wise.  The post-meal snooze, or this year, a Black Jack tutorial from a seasoned Uncle.  And, most importantly, just taking some time out to enjoy being together as a family, as it subtlety but progressively changes from year to year, starting to really appreciate all that we have as a family, and all the we have had as a family.

Speaking of appreciation, if you take a look at our Ellis Medicine Bariatric Care Center page on Facebook, you will notice a number of appreciative posts.  It may be a sense of a new beginning as a patient prepares for surgery or starts the preoperative weight loss phase.  Or a patient who has a surgery date and is looking forward to the day of that new beginning. Or the postoperative patient that is off many of her meds, (especially Diabetes meds!), or a patient enjoying all of his new found quality of life benefits as their weight loss is occurring rapidly and they are able to do so much more than before.

Add to that the multitude of stories we hear in the office nearly every day regarding goals met, milestones achieved, and the numerous outwardly obvious and intimately personal benefits of weight loss surgery success...  These keep us going when the days can be challenging at times.

I guess when you really boil it down the the basics- Thankfulness is as simple as being aware of and appreciating something that you 'have' that you may not necessarily deserve.  And whether you work for it or not, in some way you really don't have total control over that thing, that situation, that relationship- yet you really do, in some way, have it now. Being thankful is a way to enjoy it in a different, but very satisfying way now. We have a choice to see the glass half full all the time!

Happy Thanksgiving!