This week I am thinking about gratitude. That’s not hard for me. I was born an optimist; I always see the glass half-full. I always make lemonade from lemons — what else would you do with them? While it is certainly true that I have had my share of bad days, I’ll be the first to tell you that they have made me a better person. And they made me a better doctor, too. See what I mean? Glass half full. It’s a given. 

I had a personal laugh once when a friend send me a “positivity challenge.” As far as I’m concerned, it’s never been positivity that was the challenge. Nevertheless, there is so much for which I am grateful. Here is my very abbreviated list:

I am grateful for four little beings whose very existence feeds my soul in ways I find difficult to describe. I could not have predicted this. It amazes me that you have to live most of your life, or at least a good portion of it, before you are privileged to meet some of the most important people in your life. I am speaking, of course, about grandchildren. 

I am grateful for my family and our regular get-togethers. 

I am grateful for my friends, especially some of my oldest friends, whom I have known for many decades now. 

I had breakfast at a new place with a friend who has a gift for words, and she asked me all kinds of questions about a writing project I’ve been working on. Her questions are the very best. They help me to clarify, understand, and see things in my project that were invisible to me, and I certainly did not know to ask about them. 

I am deeply grateful to a family whose commitment to nutritious food and lovingkindness once allowed my child the rare pleasure of enjoying a bowl of sweet potato ice cream made with coconut and sunflower seed milks! 

I began a daily yoga and meditation practice in January 2016. This month I am proud to say that I have been practicing for ten years. I would never, ever have imagined the direction those first few days would take me. Days became weeks, weeks became months, months became years. And then a decade. 3650+ days. It would all have been much too much to try had I known where it would lead. But one day at a time it has taken me here nevertheless. I continue to practice. There is so much to learn. 

In 2026, I am looking forward to a number of speaking opportunities on health, wellness, mindfulness, nutritious food. I continue to believe that mindfulness is the most important pillar of wellness. 

I am most grateful for the fact that, for the first time in a great many years, I am not sleep deprived. I am done with multi-tasking, and so grateful for the realization.