Kari's Story - Grateful for Gratitude
"I promised God I would never take another day for granted."
Gratitude.
This was my word for 2023. On Thanksgiving day 2022, I started feeling sick and got COVID. Things got very bad, and I ended up with a scary illness called Guillain-Barre syndrome. This illness had attacked my neurological system and caused me to be unable to talk, move my face, smile, or move my body.
I was in ICU for 10 days and spent several months doing rehab and speech therapy. When I was at my lowest point and scared and alone in a hospital room, the one thing I promised God was that if he would give me back my ability to move and talk again, I would never take another day for granted. I would be grateful for more and focus on the blessings and good people in my life.
In January, I downloaded the Gratitude app and started each day writing something I was grateful for. I made myself do it even on my busy mornings or the days when I woke up in a rotten mood. I started finding positive quotes and posting one every Sunday on Facebook. Quotes that I could look back on when I needed a reminder or quotes that I hoped would inspire others to feel happier.
Fast forward one year, gratitude has made a profound difference in my attitude and my life. I am completely healthy, and I contribute much of that to my grit, my strength, and my positive outlook. Gratitude has become like a magnet that attracts good things. The more grateful I am, the more things I have to be grateful for.
Gratitude helped me remember to be kind to others and to focus on positivity in my life, something I think I had lost somewhere along the way.
Gratitude has helped me remember the qualities I love about myself. It also helped me to be more kind to myself when thinking about the things I don’t love so much.
Gratitude has helped me focus on the things I have, and I’ve stopped worrying about the things I don’t.
Gratitude has me reaching out to the people who are there for me and accepting that some won’t be there the way I want or need, and that’s ok because I have so many people who love me and care for me.
Gratitude has helped me to quit having expectations. Expectations have led me to hurt feelings, sadness, and disappointment. When I put gratitude over my expectations, I have much better days.
When I look back throughout this year of struggles, I can’t help but feel gratitude for all these lessons I have learned.
I have had setbacks throughout the year, and I am a work in progress. Gratitude is a journey and must become a way of life. With each day, I am finding it easier and easier to be grateful for every little and big thing in my life. I am incredibly grateful for the gift of gratitude.
