It’s been more than two years since I posted my first…post, but I figured that sitting in a hospital waiting room with a needle in my arm seemed like as good a time as any to write a second.

A few days ago I woke to my right calf cramped up. It had happened once before during a stressful week in December and then just gone away so I didn’t think much of it. But after five days it hadn’t gone away and my leg started to swell up so I began to think of family history. Both of my parents had DVTs and one of my sisters had a massive pulmonary embolism, so I’ve heard of the symptoms and they seemed to match how I was progressing. So now I await the results of a d-dimer test before an ultrasound.

That’s a long way of saying that it gave me some time (having not thought to bring a book) to write something I’ve been meaning to write for a few weeks. Let me start from the beginning:

I have been thinking more about gratitude recently. I’ve struggled with depressive episodes, and in looking into things to help, gratitude kept coming up. Whether it be in gratitude journaling (like in the Five Minute Journal), loving kindness meditation, or starting a whole gratitude project like author A.J. Jacobs did his most recent novel, Thanks a Thousand. So when searching for Christmas presents on Amazon I came across a gift where one writes a letter of gratitude a week for a year, I thought maybe I’d take on a project of my own.

So that’s the goal: search out physical addresses of family and friends and once a week sit down to express to them thanks for the presence they have had in my life. If you have received one of these letters, I again would like to express that I am truly grateful for the place you’ve had in my life. If you have not yet received one, send me your address and I’ll add you to the list. Not sure if the project will last more than a year, but as my dad always says “It’s good to have fans” and it is even better to thank them.

But now I’ll put away my laptop in the hope that they’ll call my name soon.