For the next couple weeks I will be posting the Gratitude Journal prompts that are being given to my students and my response post.

I can only image how different the words “life lesson” must mean to a middle school student versus the experiences of a sixty-something teacher. I’ve mentioned this more than a couple times but in 2012 I was diagnosed with an auto-immune illness CIDP (Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy) and lost the ability to walk or support my body weight without using a walker. 

Fortunately I was able to get treatment that helped my body counteract its self-destruction and after 88 iVIG treatments over the course a year and half I was able to walk again. During the illness it was so difficult to do anything like getting out of bed or moving from room to room so that I became very intentional about every little thing. Because I couldn’t carry anything and use the walker, I carried everything in a black backpack that I slung around my front. I would check and make sure I had anything I might need before I left the bedroom to go to the kitchen. And I discovered the wonderful power of napping and partially “living” in my own imagination as I napped. I told a friend that I have a small understanding of what it might be to be over 80 and what will happen to me if I’m lucky enough to live to that age. 

If anything, I realized how short life is and the importance of making every moment count. I had been moving so fast and getting nothing really done that getting ill and then recovering was a blessing that I will not forget and do not want to forget. I’m alive because the professionals I worked with did their jobs and I gave my energies to getting better and appreciating what I had already gotten in my life. The past eight years I continue to endeavor to make the efforts of all of the professionals, friends and family worth the difficulties, frustrations and tears, not because I’m worth it, but because we are worth it.