Here Comes the Crud

I think a lot about gratitude and how surprising a concept it can be.  How often I'm not as grateful as I should be for the mundane, taken-for-granted blessings in my life.  This doesn't make me a bad person.  In fact, I think that it makes me pretty average.  Life is not easy and we're often fending off difficulties and challenges, not contemplating our navels, marveling at how good we have it.  An apt reminder for me is to be grateful that I'm in very good health.  I usually take this blessing as something that I've earned or that is my due.  I'm one of those people who kind of gets whatever crud is circulating through a community.  I get an average number of colds or respiratory illnesses.  I'm not sick all the time but I do get sick.  Many years ago - 2004, to be precise, demonstrating how transformative this experience was - I contracted a stubborn chest cold that hung in there for quite a while.  As I was just rounding back into health I got the flu - I've had the flu twice in my life that I can remember so another transformative experience - and was as sick as a dog for a few weeks.  I believe that because my body was so worn down fighting off crud that in my run-down, weakened  state I was vulnerable enough to get another cold.  I recall getting sick, being sick, and recovering from being sick for a solid two months.  Then, one day, I was shocked to realize I felt healthy.  I was blown away by how healthy I felt. I was immensely grateful that I simply wasn't sick.  I didn't win the lottery or anything - I just wasn't sick.  I was struck by the realization that I express very little gratitude for all of the days and weeks and months that I'm in good health and fine fettle.  I remember saying: "Goddamn I feel good" while realizing that I feel this way almost all of the time and totally take it for granted.