You may be tired of hearing about gratitude, but at the risk of overloading you, I want to talk about gratitude. Author and speaker Case Kenny reminded me recently of a powerful way to feel grateful. I don’t know about you, but gratitude can start to feel rote. Like, of course, I’m grateful for clean drinking water and a safe place to live. But do I always feel that in my body? I wish I did, but I do not.

Case said to up the ante on gratitude, think back to when things were challenging and compare that to how things are now. So, remember the time you broke your leg, and you’ll feel grateful you can walk unencumbered. Or reflect on that camping trip where all your belongings got soaked, and you’ll feel grateful you’re not sleeping in a tent.

As for me, I’m feeling grateful for something as simple as being able to sit upright. Last Monday, I was hit with the worst case of vertigo of my life. If you’re unfamiliar, vertigo means you’re dizzy and the entire room is spinning even though you’re not moving. For some people, like me, their eyes dart back and forth uncontrollably when they sit or stand. There’s no medication for vertigo because the issue is with the inner ear. When an ear crystal, which controls balance and orientation, gets dislodged, you experience vertigo.

A perfect picture for this post, no? Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

The solution is to reset the inner ear with various maneuvers. Well, I tried all those maneuvers and they didn’t work. So I spent 16 hours lying in bed because I couldn’t move without the world spinning. It was so bad that I couldn’t refill my water glass or get anything to eat. It was so bad that even though a few people offered to come over to support me, I couldn’t leave the bed to unlock the door.

After tossing and turning the entire night, the ear crystals reset. I’m still recovering – my head and neck tried really hard to stabilize so they’re stiff and sore – but thankfully, the vertigo is gone. I didn’t think I’d be grateful for something I take for granted literally every day, but I am. I’m reminded of how easily I could be incapacitated, of how fragile the human body is, and so today, I’m grateful.

Gratitude is also on my mind not because we recently celebrated Thanksgiving here in the U.S., but because it’s my birthday on December 1. As I get older, I’m constantly reminded that nothing is promised. There’s no guarantee that any of us will reach a certain age, and so every year truly feels like a celebration.

What’s interesting is that my last birthday was emotionally fraught because I turned the big 4-0 and my life didn’t (and doesn’t) look how I thought it would. I had so many feelings about hitting that milestone, and this year, things feel simpler. This year, I’m just enjoying that I’m here, that I’m alive, and that I’m loved. Not only is that enough, it’s everything. So yeah, I’m grateful. And I hope you find something to be grateful for, too.

I dream of a world where we reflect on when things went wrong so that we’re grateful when things go right. A world where we feel grateful for the smallest things because we recognize there are no guarantees in this life. A world where we practice a new way to give thanks.

Another world is not only possible, it’s probable.