Wednesday Gratitude: Good Eyes, Good Writing, Good Teaching

Many things are making me happy this week.  Let me list a few:

--My chief happiness comes from my eye appointment yesterday.  I've had some issues with my left eye since I got pink eye a few years ago:  some crustiness, some ooziness, a tendency to produce tears at inopportune times.  Until the past year, these issues came and went.  In the past year, these conditions have been constant.

The eye doctor has proclaimed these issues normal-ish.  There's no infection, no tumor.  In this year of many cancers, I was worried.  My tear duct is not blocked.  My eye doctor thinks it's sinus/allergy related.

It's strange that it only affects my left eye, but that eye has always been more vulnerable.

I didn't realize how much I had worried about my eye until she told me I was essentially OK.  I got a bit teary, but it was OK, because I'd had drops in my eyes, so no one looked at me and said, "Why are you crying, silly girl?"

--And my eyes are in good shape otherwise:  good pressure, no cataracts, no change from last year.  At my age of 49, I'm grateful.

--I have had some good writing sessions this week.  I am most pleased with this blog post (you'll have to scroll down) in which I confess my queasiness with my church's breast cancer Sunday.  I wrestle with the theological question of a meticulous creator who seems to insert a design flaw, and I ask, "Can it be that God loves the cancer cell as much as the human?"  Could the cancer cell be part of a larger plan?  The essay went in a surprising direction at the end, and it delighted me.

--One of the online classes that I teach is coming to a close.  I have gotten some heartwarming e-mails from my students.  They have talked about how much I helped them improve their writing skills.  In the online environment, I can't always tell what's working and who is responding.  I prize these e-mails that give me praise and feedback more than you can imagine.

--Some weeks I don't feel like I'm being a good friend/wife/sister/daughter/department chair/teacher/community member/church member.  This week, I'm not feeling that way.