THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 22, 1995 TAG: 9511210122
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Around Town
SOURCE: Linda McNatt
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Sunny called me at the office the other day. She couldn't wait. She had to tell me.
``I got a 94 on my algebra test, Mom.''
And I was so thankful.
It's funny how the little things in life often remind us of all we have to be grateful for.
Always a smart kid - she made honor roll through elementary school and whizzed through three years of Latin in high school - Sunny was a late bloomer, a free spirit, an elementary school principal told me once.
It took a while for her to find direction. And then, just when she was about to get there, at 22, she was involved in an accident that put her into a coma for almost two weeks and the hospital for two months.
Since then, her recovery has been slow. But seldom more than a month or so goes by that somebody in Isle of Wight County doesn't ask: ``How is Sunny doing?''
She's doing fine, thank you. She's finally enrolled in college. She's soaking up psychology, and she's conquering algebra. In high school, her favorite question about higher math was: ``But what will I ever use algebra for?''
I had no answer. I'm a word person.
And one of those words I probably don't use often enough is ``thankful.''
'Tis the season.
I'm thankful that my daughter lived through the accident. I'm thankful for the caring people who still ask about her.
Somebody told me once that trials tend to make us stronger.
Well, I can't tell you how often I feel like rolling my eyes to the heavens and saying, ``Sir (or ma'am), I think I'm strong enough now.''
We all feel that way, I'm sure. It takes thinking about it to realize what we do have to be thankful for.
I'm thankful for my own health and energy. I, who am never sick, was sick last summer. I'm thankful I had a wonderful network of friends and co-workers who let me know they really care about me.
I'm grateful for my own stubborn constitution. I had little time to be sick for very long. And I'm thankful for the one special friend who left a bag on my door one morning containing an herb - milk weed thistle, of all things - that I credit for a quick recovery. Even my doctor was amazed.
That only tended to make my belief stronger in the special plan that created all of this wonderful universe. If provisions have been made to care for even the smallest plant and animal, it makes sense that everything we need was put here for humans as well.
And just last week, I realized how grateful I am for this brain of mine.
I was at a local farm with two co-workers. Standing next to a cotton field, with the beauty of the fall leaves all around me, I heard the echoes of hammering from a house being built nearby.
``It's the 1860s again,'' I announced to the others as I turned around. ``There's a skirmish going on just down the road.''
The women laughed, and one of them commented that she supposed that was why I was a writer, that my creative imagination was always at work.
Creative imagination, yes, and the old computer that never lets me down. It has a memory bank that rivals anything on the market and soaks up information at high-tech levels. The processing may be somewhat slower, but it hasn't failed me yet. And I am grateful.
Thinking about the cotton field incident reminds me of how thankful I am to be living and working in such a beautiful part of this world. If you haven't taken a good look at the beauty of this countryside lately, all you really need to do is ride the back roads of Isle of Wight County for just a few miles. It is glorious this time of year!
And then, just the other day, I walked into a friend's house in Windsor after spying a patch of collards in a field, glistening with morning dew. When I told my friend how the sight made me long for a ``mess'' of greens, he said, ``Go look in the freezer.''
I feasted on my favorite meal for lunch! Thanks for friendship and collards.
Oh, we all get down at times, but there is so much we can be thankful for. Thank goodness we get reminded.
Blessings to all this Thanksgiving. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by LINDA McNATT
Sunny McNatt studies psychology for the college course she is
taking.
by CNB