• Mind
  • Body
  • Sight
  • Hearing
  • Smell
  • Taste
  • Touch
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Living with Scleroderma

Reflections on the Messy Complexity of Chronicity

  • Home
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
  • What Is Scleroderma?
  • Resources
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / Body / What I’m Thankful for this Thanksgiving

What I’m Thankful for this Thanksgiving

Evelyn Herwitz · November 22, 2022 · 6 Comments

For the first time in three years, we’re planning to get together with Al’s cousins for Thanksgiving. While we can never, ever, dismiss Covid as a wily adversary, it does feel as if the pandemic is finally morphing into an endemic, and that we’ll cope with it like the annual flu, with updated vaccines each year.

Now that Al and I are fully vaxxed for Covid and the flu, we’ve been getting out more. This past weekend we attended a wonderful concert of piano and cello compositions by J.S. Bach. We’re no longer worried about eating inside restaurants. I always carry a mask, but have stopped using it unless I’m on mass transit or am in a crowded, enclosed space. Of course, however, I follow rules for masking in health care settings.

So far, so good, thank goodness. I also feel like I need to risk exposure to whatever else is floating about, just so my body produces antibodies on its own. (Though I am not looking for trouble, either. If someone is sneezing or coughing nearby, out comes the mask.)

It is a relief. I am incredibly grateful for all the effective vaccines and anti-viral medications, for free access to same, for health care professionals who have worked so hard under such heavy pressure during the worst of the pandemic, for all those who showed up and solved problems and kept things running.

There is more to be grateful for this holiday. Our election system worked this November, despite so many threats and strains. Our democracy remains under tremendous pressure, and the risks of irreparable harm remain huge. But I am more hopeful than I have been this past year that people of good will, and especially young folks, will rise to the challenges before us.

On a more personal note, I’m grateful for my husband, the happiest man on Earth since he retired a few weeks ago, my two amazing daughters, loving family and good friends, a warm home in this chilly season, excellent physicians, a caring community, and you, Dear Reader, for joining me on my journey with scleroderma and all its twists and turns.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Evelyn Herwitz blogs weekly about living fully with chronic disease, the inside of baseballs, turtles and frogs, J.S. Bach, the meaning of life and whatever else she happens to be thinking about at livingwithscleroderma.com. Please view Privacy Policy here.

Image: nafety_art

Share this:

  • Share
  • Email
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Filed Under: Body, Mind Tagged With: body-mind balance, managing chronic disease, mindfulness, resilience

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Patricia Bizzell says

    November 22, 2022 at 12:11 pm

    Hear, hear!

    Reply
    • Evelyn Herwitz says

      November 27, 2022 at 1:23 pm

      🙂

      Reply
  2. Rita says

    November 23, 2022 at 9:03 am

    Happy Thanksgiving!

    Reply
    • Evelyn Herwitz says

      November 27, 2022 at 1:23 pm

      Thanks, Rita! Hope you had a lovely holiday.

      Reply
  3. Lynn Horn says

    November 26, 2022 at 5:39 am

    I could have written this blog!!! I agree with everything you so eloquently stated. I love reading your blogs/writing style, Evelyn.
    I am almost finished with the book “The Premonition” (non-fiction). It’s about the pandemic and some very intelligent scientists. This book opened my eyes regarding the CDC’s responsibility during a pandemic & how our highest elected official shelved a pandemic plan & ignored warnings of the impact Covid would have on our country as well as making you wonder how agencies such as the CDC are not held more accountable?

    I hope 2023 is a healthy one for you and that you can attend many piano/cello concerts!

    Reply
    • Evelyn Herwitz says

      November 27, 2022 at 1:24 pm

      Thanks, Lynn, for your kind words and the book recommendation! I looked up some reviews, and it sounds both very relevant and sobering. Will read.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to Living With Scleroderma and receive new posts by email. Subscriptions are free and I never share your address.

About the Writer

When not writing about living fully with chronic health challenges, Evelyn Herwitz helps her marketing clients tell great stories about their good works. She would love to win a MacArthur grant and write fiction all day. Read More…

Blog Archive

Recent Posts

  • Anticipation
  • On Managing Pain
  • Oscillations
  • Candy Heart Wish
  • Soup’s On!

I am not a doctor . . .

. . . and don’t play one on TV. While I strive for accuracy based on my 40-plus years of living with scleroderma, none of what I write should be taken as medical advice for your specific condition.

Scleroderma manifests uniquely in each individual. Please seek expert medical care. You’ll find websites with links to medical professionals in Resources.

Copyright © 2023 · Daily Dish Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in