A Season of Thanksgiving

This week when we celebrate Thanksgiving and also Hanukkah we are reminded to take time and give thanks for our many blessings and the miracles that we experience in our lives.  For me one of my biggest blessings is that I moved to Kendal eight years ago when I was still able to be quite independent.  I was able to easily become settled in the life that Kendal makes possible.  It was an easy move as I look back in in retrospect.  Oh yes, there were all of the trials and tribulations that go with moving from my home back in the Philadelphia area -  the downsizing and packing and unpacking.  But they have faded from memory as I found a pleasant new way of way of life and made many new friends here at Kendal.  .

I'm thankful that I no longer have to plan meals, buy the ingredients, bring them home, put them away, prepare them and then clean up all of the kitchen when I have eaten.  I am grateful for good company at mealtime instead of eating alone.  I am thankful that I no longer have to worry about snow removal when it snows.  I don't have to make sure the garden is weeded, the lawn mowed, the leaves raked, and make sure the eaves are cleaned out.  I am grateful that there are many educational and entertaining programs right here at Kendal in the evening which I can attend without having to find someone to take me since I no longer drive at night..  The list of blessings is endless.

Most important now for me is the fact that I entered Kendal while I was able to get to know all of the many services that exist here to make our life comfortable and meaningful.  I believe that it has made the adjustments that I have had to make due to the changes in my life that have occurred since I arrived here.  No doubt the most significant of these is the changes in my eyesight this past year.  I have reached the point where I am considered a person with low vision.  I can no longer read without a special device to enlarge the print.  I no longer recognize people until I am very close to them.  But because I came here while I could, the adjustments that I am finding necessary are much easier and for that I am most grateful.