This past Friday was the most recent monthly meeting of a group that I am a part of. Seven of us who are spiritual directors gather to talk about how the Holy Spirit is moving in our lives. (That's the same thing we listen for, in conversations with our "directees." It's important that we are alert to that movement in our own lives, so we can better help others in that awareness!)

Obviously, I had missed the past several meetings of the group. This past Friday, the convenor asked me to "present" on my spiritual journey over these past months. We are very honest in the group, and I talked about how horrific the hospitalization had been for me, and how difficult it was to overcome fear during those weeks. In the course of conversation, as my colleagues opened my awareness through their questions, it became obvious that I knew God's presence as it came through other people. In the ICU, when I heard of prayer lists that I was on, there was God's healing Spirit. While hooked up to a ventilator, as I read notes that had been written to me, there was God's healing Spirit in those words. When I was visited (especially by folks who didn't feel the compulsion to talk a whole lot, but who were willing to simply sit with me), there was God's healing Spirit, enfleshed in my visitors. The Spirit was moving through you who are reading this, and through many, many others.

Then, one of my colleagues said, "Well, what's been your awareness of the Spirit since you've been home?" And I realized it's been in my feelings of thankfulness. I am so thankful! I am thankful for each new day when I wake up. I am thankful for that awful medication I drink twice a day. (Each time, before I swallow it, I say out loud, "Take this, you goddam fungus!" I believe, in that, I am entirely faithful to the sentiment expressed by many of the Psalm writers.) I am thankful for deep and easy breaths. I am thankful for Patty and her warm embracing arms. I am thankful for the warm bed I snuggle into each night.

This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of what I'm thankful for. My point is that I am consciously thankful. In that consciousness, there is the Spirit moving. I hope I never get back to "normal" -- to taking everyday blessings for granted.