Pretty good after all

It's cold and dark (even at midmorning) and a big winter storm is supposed to be blowing in. We passed the winter solstice earlier this week so daylight is hard to come by anyway. I'm off work for holiday break - ok, that's good - with tons of work to do in the interim - oh well.

Against this backdrop, the phone rang this morning. It was a woman from the specialty division of my pharmacy - I have a chronic medical condition that (knock on wood) doesn't much slow me down but does require daily injections of phenomenally expensive specialty medication to hold it at bay. The pharmacy lady calls every month to quiz me on my progress and order a refill on my behalf.

She launched into her usual round of questions. In the last 30 days have you missed any doses? (no) Have you had any side effects? (no) Any unusual reactions? (no) Any relapses of your condition? (no) Any falls? (no) Any other problems? (no).

As we concluded the conversation I realized she'd just taken me through a Christmas Eve counting of my blessings.

I'm bumping along just fine, as are my family members. We all have jobs and roofs over our heads, with running water, electricity and furnaces that work. If the promised snowy deluge occurs, it's Christmas, I can choose to just stay inside, safe and warm. If the power goes out, I have a flashlight and blankets. I have medical insurance to pay the lion's share of that gold-plated prescription.

Truly, good fortune I should not take for granted. Plus, we gained a minute of daylight today.

It's a pretty good day after all.