Feeling Gratitude

I've been so stressed lately I can hardly even function. Stressed about all kinds of things like work (more so not being able to go to work), what this new virus is doing to the world, my diabetic cat who doesn't seem to be able to get regulated, and the myriad of things not getting done because of the stress which causes more stress. I could go on and on but I won't.

So today, I'm standing in my kitchen making a simple soup out of things that need to be used, winter squash left over from last year's garden, carrots, celery that's about to go bad, onion halves that have been wrapped in foil and left in the fridge after making some other meal, some ground chicken that must be cooked, and a few other odds and ends.

I was struck suddenly by a memory, it was me about 6 years old, sitting in my Nana's kitchen watching her make a very similar soup. I was asking questions (I don't remember specifically what they were) and she in her extremely kind voice telling me, teaching me, why she was doing what she was doing. At that same time a complete and overwhelming sense of gratitude hit me, like a truck. Gratitude for my parents and my grandparents, for those who taught me how to grow things, how to build things, how to make things, how to care for myself, and how to care for others.

It started a tidal wave of memories, things that have been locked away in my brain since I was a child. I'm so thankful that I had these people in my life for the time that I did.

With that feeling of gratitude also came a sense of relief and that stress, for now, is gone.