Anticipation. Appreciation.

    The wait has ended.  My wheelchair arrived.  My bedroom door has been removed.   The learning curve begins.
     For the first time in years last night, I moved ahead of someone with whom I was traveling.  They did not wait for me.  I showed some consideration by slowing down some.
     Do you know what that means?  I understand how it sounds. Pathetic, I fear.  Yet, do you know what that means?
     Yet to be learned?  Tight spaces.  Grocery stores.  Backing up. Doors. Door thresholds.  Busy times in the skyway--the elevated walkway from my condominium to shops, and business.  Much more that I don't know yet.
     My appreciation for life--for life at the age of 50--has been tested for the last few years.  The test has enabled me to redefine how I live.  I never imagined how I would leave the work world.  The word retirement still does not sit right with me.  I have not discovered what word does describe this phase after my working career.  To be able to pursue my passions--genealogy, research, and writing, I don't know the word or phrase that captures its essence.
     I thought I appreciated friends, family, and a strong faith community.  Yet, the last several years have proven to me that I did not begin to appreciate those treasures in my life as I do now.  I pray to live with that appreciation always, and in all ways.  May each of us, and all of us live bathe ourselves in that appreciation.