{"id":31394,"date":"2026-01-15T08:12:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T13:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=31394"},"modified":"2026-01-15T08:12:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T13:12:32","slug":"grateful-and-lucky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/grateful-and-lucky\/","title":{"rendered":"Grateful and Lucky"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grateful and Lucky<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

So, last year wasn’t a great year for me, and I got a little morose. But letting things get me down has never been the way I wanted to be, so my inner sunshine took over and lit the way forward. Melancholy brings nothing but sadness. Feeling sorry for yourself does nothing but make things worse and drive your friends away.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I think it’s human nature to feel sorry for yourself when things go badly. Then again, human nature is naturally full of flaws and imperfections, which is why we call it human nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year at this time, I was crunching through the snow, walking four miles every day in the bitter January cold. This year, I can barely walk out to the mailbox. Naturally, it’s frustrating to go from up there to down here. But that’s no excuse for being melancholy, or bitter, or morose. Sometimes it feels good to feel sorry for yourself – you sure don’t want others feeling sorry for you. No one wants someone else’s pity. So we allow ourselves a little bit of secretive self-pity. The only problem with that is that it can make you a dour, unpleasant person.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last summer, as many of you know, I battled sepsis. And it was the worst experience of my life.\u00a0 Until then, I had no idea what sepsis was or how really bad sepsis is. And I hope by writing about it last summer, I made a lot of people aware of it and maybe even saved someone’s life.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m still recovering, even though it’s been five months. It damaged my heart, bladder, lungs, and kidneys, all of which, thank the Good Lord, are improving. The osteoarthritis in my right-hip has destroyed the joint and the cartilegs so it’s bone-on-bone, and it hurts to walk. This once avid walker has been diminished to a hobbler using a cane. It wasn’t an easy transition to make. And because of the kidney damage from sepsis, a hip replacement was not an option.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, I got a little down with more than a little self-pity. I was miserable.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, Lou Gehrig, who suffered from much more than a bad hip, said, “Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.” I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I am lucky and grateful.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m lucky because I can still work and do the things I love to do – like helping people with their computers, writing, and reading books. And I have hundreds of friends – all of our subscribers I consider friends. And the good wishes I received when I was recovering last summer humbled me. So many of you brought me sunshine on those darkest of days- and I’ll never forget it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Darcy filled in for me when I couldn’t keep up with my work and kept things going. I appreciate that so much.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wallowing in self-pity isn’t for me. So what if I can’t walk four miles and visit my beloved woods every day? There are so many worse off than I am. I’m lucky to be alive. I’m lucky to have so many friends. I’m lucky to have a family that loves and cares for me.\u00a0 It’s not what I don’t have that matters; it’s what I do have.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks to all of you for your support and for reading this essay. I’m lucky. I have gained much more than I’ve lost and I’m very grateful.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grateful and Lucky So, last year wasn’t a great year for me, and I got a little morose. But letting things get me down has never been the way I wanted to be, so my inner sunshine took over and lit the way forward. Melancholy brings nothing but sadness. Feeling sorry for yourself does nothing but make things\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[228],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31394"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31394"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31398,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31394\/revisions\/31398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}