For the month of November I’m participating in a daily gratitude challenge posted by the journaling app that I use, Day One, and here’s today’s prompt:

What are three reasons I am glad to be alive?

I’m not done. I don’t know about other 60-somethings, but I still feel like I have a lot that I want to do with my life. While I’ve come to enjoy naps, I still feel like I have a lot that I want to do that’s more important than various forms of sleep.
The prompt makes me think about the good fortune to be alive at this time and in this place. I’ve personally benefitted from relatively recent medical advances without which I might not still be here and/or would have been disabled. I am not a fan of how health care in the U.S. is much more focused on corporate quarterly profit margins than actual healthcare or quality of life. I’ve been lucky in that I have had relatively good insurance when I needed it through my work. But it is criminal that older folks who have worked their whole lives and contributed to the community and society run the risk of losing everything should they or a loved one become hospitalized or in need of extended care. It’s the opposite of what living in a civilized society. So far, I’ve been lucky.
I feel like we live in amazing times. Within my lifetime we’ve been to the moon and we’ve made technology available to everyday people that’s on the level of the technology that got us to the moon. I still hold on to the belief that was given to me by my parents that one can be anything one dreams to become and that one should not be limited by gender or ethnic heritage or what one’s father or grandfather did for a living. I recognize that there will always be powerful people who will try to restrict real power to themselves, but I hold on to the realization that there are more “us” just wanting to live good lives than there are of those who would want to control who has access to what a good life has to offer. I’m still optimistic about the possibilities, and that give me drive to do my best while I’m still here.