"Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic.” — John Henry Jowett

I have found this quote to be totally true many times in my life, but more so recently.  As I have been continuing my recovery from my knee-replacement surgery, I have focused on this quote many times, especially over the last day or two and let me tell you; gratitude is every bit of a vaccine, an antitoxin and antiseptic.    There have been a few down moments when I start feeling sorry for myself, but this is such a great attitude and outlook adjustment.  I have talked to my wife about this too and she totally agrees and has helped me to refocus my attention back on getting better and looking ahead.

This also got me remembering a few more things about my stay at the hospital.  My first roommate was an elderly gentleman from another country, who could not speak English to well.  Plus, being in such close quarters, it was not hard to hear things about what he was battling.  He was dealing with throat cancer, something wrong with his jaw along with having recently broken one of his legs too.  This got me feeling better right away about my status but I also picked up on how hard his son was working on making sure he was being taken care of.  The questions, the time spent in the hospital and on the phone, all to make sure his dad was getting the best care possible.  His son had to be a little younger than me, but I was impressed.The language barrier was helped a little with a few doctors & other medical personnel that could speak this man’s native language.   So many times you hear of people kind of being left on their own when it comes to these types of health issues.  This man's son did such a great job, a lesson for me and everyone.  Well, they had to move his dad from this hospital I was at to another one for the different and specialized treatment that he needed. 

I was alone for a couple of hours until my new roommate arrived.  Again, quickly finding out that he was a guy my age having just went through his second back surgery. Now this got my attention quickly as I have back surgery coming up in early November.  This guy was a nice guy, hard worker throughout his lifetime and again, I could pick things up even without really talking to him right away.  We did talk a few times through the curtain telling about our stories a little bit to each other.  It was great to see the support that he had there from his wife and his mom the first evening after his surgery.  Then his wife was there for a good part of the day on Thursday.  He also had a buddy that came in on Friday morning to visit for a little bit too.  

I noticed quickly this guy appreciated the people that came to visit him and that he was very grateful for their time spent with him.  He was in a lot of pain it seemed, but it didn't keep him from doing the little things he had to start to do to get better.  We found ourselves talking a few times, trying to keep encouraging each other a little bit along with having some fun with some light-hearted comments and a bit of laughter.  We spent a little time talking about how will have to find a new profession / career as with his injuries his doctors have told him he would have to make some changes.  As I had my time to spend thinking, this got me thinking how grateful I was for the time spent with both roommates and the lessons that each gave to me.

I am now into my Physical Therapy sessions.  First was four  visits here at home and now I have started this week going to my regular Physical Therapist as an outpatient.  I knew it would be challenging and difficult, but I have also been thinking about this for months leading up to my surgery, the fact that I have to do these exercises and work through the pain in order to get better.  I can tell already from the people that I have been working with, that there are many more lessons of gratitude here for me to learn from and to focus on.  There will be more thoughts, observations, lessons and discussions coming from this for sure.  We all have things that we go through everyday.  There are always lessons of gratitude there for us to learn from for sure.  What are some of the lessons you have learned on your journey in life?

"Do not take anything for granted — not one smile or one person or one rainbow or one breath, or one night in your cozy bed." ~Terri Guillemets

As I got a little bit of bonus time to sit back and do some thinking over the last few days, this quote was something that came to mind during those moments.  When I read this today, I knew I had to share some thoughts and ideas from time spent contemplating life recently.

You see, I had knee-replacement surgery this past Tuesday, July 15 and during my stay in the hospital for a few days I did take many moments and thinking of all of the many things that I am grateful for.  I’m happy to say that it wasn't the hospital stay that did this for me, for I have thought about these things during other times of my life.  But it was the hospital stay that reminded me about them and I did get to spend more time taking these thoughts in and dwelling on them a lot more than I normally would have.

First thought that came to mind was my health.  Here I was having major surgery on my right knee, yet this was to make it better along with improving my quality of life for everything else; work, doing things with family, not being held back with things I could not do anymore, etc.  There is a saying that if we have our health, we have it all.  I couldn't agree more.  After seeing others in the same predicament and other issues in the hospital, I can honestly say it one major item in my life that I need to work on more in the future and that is taking better care of myself.

Second thought was my family.  I cannot say enough about my wife Susanne.  What she is sacrificing to help me during this time is amazing.  I know there are many times where we get under each others’ skins with the things we do and say, but the love, dedication and support she has given to me during these first few days it’s all been things that I have not left gone unnoticed.   My parents, at age 48 I am still blessed to have my parents in my life where I know for many others my age, older and younger; they cannot say the same thing.  I know too many people that have lost their parents and can never see them again here in this life.  I've reminded my kids plenty of times to make sure they take the time to visit with and talk to all 4 of their grandparents for that’s another rarity in life.  Being 20 or 18 years old and still having all of your grandparents around is such a cool thing that everyone knows won't last.

 My mom came out for the surgery to sit with my wife.  Then both my parents came out the next day to visit me in the hospital and I had just got done with my first session of Physical Therapy.  I was in so much pain while they were there for their visit.  They just supported me for a little bit of time and then they knew I just needed my medicine along with rest, so they took off after a short visit.  Then my wife and kids came in during the evening of that first day in the hospital after my surgery.  My daughter’s boyfriend came too, which was great.  I loved the moments I got to share with them that evening.   My wife came back to visit on Thursday which was great.  Just her and I having some time together – she even snuck in something from Taco Bell for me too.  Then on Friday, I was going home.   My parents come through again.  They came out to the hospital and helped make sure everything was okay, asking questions that I didn't, making sure we all knew the about the discharge instructions, helping to pack up the few things that I had there with me, just making sure I got home safe.

Third – the amount of texts and well wishes that I got before my surgery and after.  It meant so much to me the messages and notes I got from people that remembered that I was having this surgery.  I really didn't post anything about this ahead of time.  Maybe I should have, but I've always been a guy that doesn't like to put the spotlight on myself.  But at the same time, I figured I could write about this and maybe do some other things with this part of my story because maybe it would help someone else going through things that they are facing.

Fourth, the smiles from the staff that worked with me there at the hospital.  Amazing!  It’s been really amazing looking back in this process with all the health care professionals I've dealt with during the last few years battling this knee and other issues.  Their attitudes and professionalism has been one the key factors with me wanting to take on and deal with these things head on.  Their support, caring attitudes, time spent with me and yes their smiles, have all been a very positive difference with me and this entire process.

Another one that I actually had to do and of course it was a great reminder for all of us too, and that is counting our breaths.  I had to count taking deep breaths on a little portable plastic device that measured my breath and when to exhale.  This was set up to help displace any pneumonia scares by giving my lungs a good workout even though I was going to be in bed a lot.  So there I was counting my breaths during all the different times of day and night.  I always remember the line from Tuesday’s With Morrie, where Morrie tells Mitch that it’s a good idea to count our breaths once in awhile, it helps us to keep from putting things off that we know we have to do.  As I counted my breaths, it got me thinking how grateful that I am still able to take my own  breaths and how precious they really are in our lives.

Finally, this quote got me thinking about that first night back in my own cozy bed.   If you have ever stayed in a hospital, I think we all can agree that a good night’s sleep is not usually found there without medications mind you.  I slept decently during my stay as I shared a room with a roommate.  With medical people coming in during all hours of the night for both of us, it was easy to not get a complete night of rest.  My bed really has never felt any better than on that first night back.  

Of course there are many more things that I am thankful for, but these were the ones I connected with this quote.  How about you?  Take a few moments to count your breaths along with some of the many things you are grateful for and let me or others know about it as just by you sharing your grateful items will help others to focus on what they have to be thankful for in their lives.

“Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful” – Joshua J. Marine

Thinking about how challenges are all around us all the time throughout life caused me to stop for a moment when I saw this quote.  We all have challenges that we are dealing with.  Each and every day.  We see life challenges in the news, on social media, talking with friends and neighbors; enough to know that we are not alone when it comes to having challenges to deal with.

In pausing life here for a moment thinking about this idea, with a cup of coffee too by the way, I have come to a couple of main thoughts that stick out to me.  First, I am indeed not the only one with problems and challenges.  In fact not only do we all have them every day in our lives, some obviously are far worse than what we have to deal with.  The thought that others do have it worse off than I do helps me to see that I need to not complain about my challenges and that I need to not let them define me along with not letting me quit due to those issues that I have.

Another thought that comes to me when I think about this is that there is tremendous empathy and caring for others that comes out of taking a few moments to dwell on these thoughts. Empathy is a point that I try and get my students to think about every year as I think it's one of the most powerful abilities that we have in connecting with other people.  It's one that we all need to do more of in this world especially with all the lousy examples we see in the media about the selfishness and lack of character that seems to be all around us in our world.

These two ideas are really helping me as I face another of many challenges in my life as I go in for knee replacement surgery tomorrow.  It truly has been a long and painful process over the last few years of trying to do everything I could to help my knee pain.  It has finally come down to the fact that the severe arthritis that I have started to battle now in my life has caused me to make some choices to get back my quality of life that I want to have.  I look forward to this process because I know at the end of it will be a life with less pain and my ability to do things I love to do.  I know there will be more procedures that I will need to have done in the future due to these changes in my body as I get older.  But I know there are so many people worse off than me, I will not let this stop me from doing the things that I know I need to do along with the new things I want to do in my life.  There are so many more meaningful moments in my life that going through this and other upcoming challenges, will make them all the more sweeter. 

What challenges are you going through right now where maybe you can take these couple of ideas to help you get through them and look ahead for better days?  Let me know as we can help each other out with some new thoughts, ideas and discussions about this and many other life events that we all go through.

“Every day thousands of people bury good ideas because they are afraid to act on them." -David Schwartz

Life continuously seems to give us messages that maybe there are better ways of doing things.  At those moments, we might just come up with ideas on how to do those things better, but then we seem to forget about it, get too busy with other things, think we can’t do that, etc.   It seems so many people today have a common thought about how there has to be a better way of doing things.  This could be for their job or career, an invention or something, improving their relationships with others, or even for doing things around the house.

The keys on these are that the ideas get lost or buried and also most people are indeed afraid to act on those ideas.   Both have happened to me throughout my lifetime and I still am working on fixing this every day.   The ideas get lost or buried for many reasons.  We do seem to be too busy in today’s world with so much going on that we miss out on the opportunities to take the time to think about how we can improve things.

The other part of us not believing we can do things a different way or improve on something also gets in the way.  It comes down to our thinking.  David Schwartz is the author of my favorite book of all time, The Magic of Thinking Big.  He addresses these points and so much more in his book that it is a book that you should put on your reading list as soon as you can.

One of the major keys that has struck me is that I’ve wasted way too much time and not putting some of my ideas into action.  So not only am I working on the fear of things stopping me, along with the fact I’m too scatter-brained so often where I lose sight of things that I need to do; there is that action piece too that has been missing on my end.  With some major things going on this summer and this fall for me, I realize now is the time to get things going. 

Is it that time for you too?  With this quote staring at me when I saw it, I know just like the old saying goes – “There’s no time like the present” to do things I know I have to do.  You do realize that quote above and the quote about the present works for you too?  I know you knew that.  I just wanted to remind you like I reminded myself.