I’ve been chronically ill for nearly twenty years, with an illness that leaves me mostly sofa or bedbound. One of the biggest things I had to learn when the horizons of my life shrank so drastically was to find gratitude in the small things in my life now that I could no longer do the big stuff. It took me a long time to learn this, but it’s made my life immeasurably better in so many ways - being forced to slow down and “smell the flowers” has, ironically, given the circumstances that forced it upon me, changed my life for the better. Being someone who was always on the go, and who has ADHD (and thus the attention span of a squirrel), this was really hard, but after so many years, being able to see the small joys in everyday life has become something really special to me.

So, in no particular order, here’s my list so far today:

-sunlight catching the loch across the fields, the smell of the rain on my garden, my husband bringing me coffee and a hug, my cat asleep on my lap, waking up not in pain (doesn’t happen often so it’s great when it does!), hearing the seagulls and curlews outside, not to mention watching the lambs bouncing about in the fields behind the house with their long-suffering mums. The light patterns on the fields caused by the clouds blowing across the sky, my landlord waving at me as he goes by in his tractor, laughing at next doors‘ dogs having a lovely time tangling their owner up in their leads for the umpteenth time, my daughter sending me a silly photo of our other cat, and the really good coffee I’m currently drinking. Not to mention reading everyone else’s replies on this great thread 🙂