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Thanksgiving: A Time to Reflect
Jennifer Miller	12/02/2006
I admit it's taken me a while to organize my thoughts for my Thanksgiving column. Perhaps with the year I have had, it was a bit emotional. Perhaps it was the losing streak the Wings found themselves in the midst of at turkey day. Perhaps it was the couple of unresolved issues hanging over my head like the difficult things in life have a way of doing. I'm ready now for my annual list of the things for which I am truly thankful. * I am thankful for Daniel Cleary. He has always been one of the most fun players to watch and now his work is paying off. I find this enjoyable the way Kris Draper's big season a few years back was. Guys like Draper and Cleary love the game so much that when things go their way it's like watching a 10-year-old score his first ever goal. Ad since most of us aren't superstars in our life, living vicariously through these guys when fortune smiles on them and the bounces go just right and the puck misses the goalpost and goes in or the bounce goes off the defender and into the net instead of being blocked. Well, that's inspiring for the rest of us to keep persevering. * I am thankful that the injuries to Johan Franzen and Jason Williams were not more serious than they were. Certainly things could have been much worse. The lack of respect or responsibility for the well being of the other players on the ice right now is not a good thing for the game. I love the physicality as much, and possibly more than the next person but seeing a different player lying motionless on the ice in a pool of blood night after night, well, it's not why I watch hockey. I'll surely be revisiting the issue in future columns with my opinions of what I think should be done. Right now I think the continued health of these players is what is important and we can all be grateful that no one has suffered a career ending concussion thus far in the season. * I am thankful that I did not spend the weekend following Thanksgiving having MRI's and CAT scans as I did last year. Being able to spend time with family doing the normal things like getting our Christmas tree and not worrying about why I was having strokes is something I'll never again take for granted. * I am thankful for Dr. Arshad Majid and his colleagues at MSU Neurology. Last December I spent a full week in the hospital while the stroke team ran test after test to try to figure out what was wrong with me. I admit I got impatient at the time and very frustrated but I will never cease to be grateful for their tireless resolve to get to the answers. Ultimately coming up with an accurate diagnosis and then overseeing my treatment surely saved my life. In short I would be unable to be thankful for anything were it not for these dedicated professionals. * In the same area, I am grateful for Dr. Carol Beals, a world class rheumatologist who arranged and oversaw my chemotherapy. Without such treatment by someone of her caliber, my prognosis was grim indeed. A 70% fatality rate to be exact. In thanking these doctors, I must also thank the wonderful nurses who cared for me during all of my hospital stays. The ones who held my hand and told me I didn't have to play the stoic. The ones who sat down and told me about their families and listened about mine. Especially Debbie who even went and got me ice cream to cheer me up when I got to feeling down. For every time they were there with compassion and anti-nausea medication, I am so thankful. Nurses are angels on earth. If you know one, give him or her a hug and tell them that they truly make the world better. * I am thankful for my friends who saw me through this whole ordeal with hugs, warm shoulders and laughter. There's not much a person cannot get through when they know they are loved. * I am thankful at the news that my niece will make it home for a visit from the Army for Christmas. We haven't seen her in quite a while and all miss her terribly. I am thankful for her safety and can't wait until she is here where we can hug her until she's glad to get away from us all again. * I am thankful that my stepdaughter was able to make it home for Thanksgiving. She has had a few rough patches as people often do and has made some choices she wishes she could take back as young people often do. But she is a wonderful human being and she breathes life into all of us when she is around. I am thankful also for her decision to become a teacher. Which is not a decision she regrets at all. While still a short distance to graduation, she will be a wonderful and dedicated educator. I am so proud of her that words fail me. And how often does that happen? * I am thankful for the teachers that my children have come in contact with this school year. With both of my boys having some issues and one actually requiring some special education services, we have had struggles in the past. This year we are having such a wonderful time that I hardly know what to do with myself. I do not spend every waking moment figuring out how to protect my kids. I hardly know my kids this year for all of the success they are having. My oldest has a form of autism and we have truly had some rough times with him. This year he is on the honor roll, learning the violin and joining the school basketball team. I believed this child was there all along but it took the team of teachers he has this year to find him. * Which brings me to what I am most thankful for. My family. My mom helping me through the battles with the school and attending special education workshops with me. In-laws who took my children in when I was sick in the hospital and unable to take care of them myself. My darling little girl (at almost 25 she's still my little girl) who brought me beautiful scarves to cover my balding head while I went through treatment. My beautiful boys who remind me every day that being loved is only half of life's greatest joy. The other half is how amazing it feels to love someone unconditionally so much you feel you might burst. And my beloved husband who was at my side every minute he could be through all of this and suffered nearly as badly as I did. As I said before, love can get a person through just about anything and I wouldn't be here writing this or watching my Wings or working my menial day job or making Christmukkah crafts with my friends if not for the love that surrounded me. That's it. More hockey next time I promise and maybe I won't end up crying on my keyboard next time either. And if you didn't take stock of everything in your life that you have to be grateful for, you need to do that right now. I guarantee you will find yourself to be one lucky soul and feel instantly better.