A Votre Sante

Got my mammogram results back today....clear as a bell. Unchanged from last year. No suspicious shadows or spots. "Hakuna Matata."

It was such a relief!! What IS it about us women that automatically programs us to start worrying about these kinds of results? Okay, maybe it's not all women, maybe it's just me. It's not like I start planning my funeral or anything, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I always brace for the worst. I start imagining what I'll do if the doctor shuts the door, pulls up a chair directly in front of me and stares intently, with that "I'm gonna cut to the chase" look on his/her face.

So far, knock wood, Praise Jah, Thank you JESUS, that has never happened to me. No doctor has ever furrowed his or her brow while reviewing one of my test results. Most of the time when I've walked out of a doctor's office, I've almost felt guilty about wasting their time, because they've generally told me I'm quite healthy.

Of course now I've just realized that bragging about being healthy is like freakin' catnip to the fates. DAMMIT!!!! Anyway, when I left the doctor's office today and settled in for the long cab ride to work, I spent a lot of time thinking about health, and about how much we take for granted. It is so damned easy to do. Until that medical thunderbolt arrives, most of us just slog through our days without considering just how incredibly, wildly, insanely blessed we are to be able to stand under our own power, to see the traffic jam we're stuck in, to hear that annoying laugh over in the next cubicle, to inhale the fresh air after a rainstorm, be able to eat our food with a fork, instead of ingest it through a tube inserted into our stomachs.

Yes, I suppose I could be healthier. I could be more toned. I could improve my diet, and I could exercise enough to be able to drop the only medication I take, for the high blood pressure that runs in my family. But overall, in this day, in this moment, in this lifetime, I have been profoundly, extraordinarily blessed when it comes to my health.

And I think it's time to celebrate that fact. In last night's conversation with my friend Faith, she said something I've been thinking about ever since. She says that for these next few years, as we transition into this amazing Golden Age, she wants to thrive. Not just exist, not just survive from one challenge to the next. I immediately latched onto that as my own goal. I already do some PRIMO existing, no doubt, but from now on, I setting my phaser on THRIVE.

As I've told many a person, a morning when you wake up above ground is already off to a rousing start! And if you're not facing a major health challenge, you're in even better shape. I'm going to start reveling in that fact just as often as I can.