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Public Thnx4 Journal

What are you grateful for?

denise
-   November 19, 2023
Cousin RR made time to come down here and visit with GF. Also, brought flowers, fav cookies, lot of hugs to GF. RR's positive personality does wonders for GF.
GF could enjoy the conversation, attention and stop being mopey.
denise
-   November 19, 2023
a nice 27 hr get away to property and Cambria; fall leaves, eating out, lovely sunset, wine by fire pit w MM
Felt good to do something fun together
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Sally
-   November 19, 2023
Coordinating nephew and girlfriends arrangement for a car rental and having them stay there an extra day (maybe). I know it seems like a small thing but at this point everything seems like a hassle to me so it was nice that brother did it. I thanked him and Patricia for taking them around and arranging.
Resting a little easier knowing their plans and having a better idea of the schedule this week.
Seth
-   November 19, 2023
I am grateful about yesterday, as I was finally able to get a hold on some of the work that I need to complete this fall semester. I am grateful that I still had the opportunity still take a good walk yesterday. Since I need to continue working, this is meant to be a short entry.

This is beneficial to me, as I need to get my work done over the next two weeks until December 4 and December 6, for each of my classes respectively. Having a balance is important to me between my work and recreation, and I am still trying to find that balance to focus on what I need to.


Seth
-   November 18, 2023

I am grateful for the fact that I am able to go boating and fishing in Sarasota Bay, as a continuation of yesterday's entry. Although I have several memories fishing, that it is not what I only wish to record. It is the sensation of spreading my arms to my side to feel the ocean-like breeze as very close to flying as the boat engine picks up speed to begin our days out on the water in the morning sunrise. It is the closest natural approximation I have to true freedom even sitting in my manual wheelchair, the one that is light enough to go on my family’s pontoon boat. A freedom that is valuable, as to forget the troubles of everyday life.
As a person with disabilities who is a full-time wheelchair user, I cannot emphasize the feeling of the bay’s wind on my face and hands enough as a truly liberating experience. What happened and the benefits are one in the same to me. (In terms of enjoying nature and my disability limiting my freedom in many ways). To have this experience, although it took me several days to find a place for this memory in my journal as something that I am grateful for.

[I think a vignette like this is better, a series of memories that brings me happiness that I will want to remember forever.]

Carolyn
-   November 17, 2023
I try to create a positive, supportive work environment.
Better, it had been a difficult week at work. I felt let down by someone who I’d been very supportive of. My co-worker reaching out made me feel acknowledged.
Ginger
-   November 17, 2023
Loves me
Peace of mind
Isabella
-   November 17, 2023
My mom has an unexpected upcoming surgery, so she has been feeling pretty mentally low. Due to this, I have been checking in on her frequently by texting and calling because she is in a different state than me right now. Today, during our call, she thanked me for reaching out so much.
I felt really good when she thanked me because she has done so much for me and supported me through my own struggles, so the least I could do is support her in return.
evelin
-   November 17, 2023
Fui na piscina com meus amigos e fizemos uma janta depois.
Sou grata por ter meus amigos ao meu lado sempre que preciso.
Seth
-   November 17, 2023
Besides my neighborhood, I feel grateful to live in my community of Sarasota, Florida [a smaller city south of Tampa but north of Fort Myers] comfortably from a financial perspective. That is because Sarasota is (1) pleasantly warm even in November and (2) by the water. I'm particularly grateful because a lot of people either come down here as the vacation they have been saving for from the north or are unable to live here full-time even if they wanted to. I am lucky in that my paternal aunt and parents bought our house here decades ago, we would not be able to afford a similar property here if we had to buy today. What is really cool, in retrospect, is that you can definitely see the license plates of different US states [and I swear I've even seen an Ontario, Canada license plate] during the right season and in the right places around town. The Florida Gulf Coast in general have some great towns with nature that is never too far away: a string of pearls. Sarasota is a midpoint of sorts. I usually am more familiar with going up north to Tampa and St. Petersburg more frequently, North Port and Venice to the south are very much different, [as are the more southern parts of Florida, even further south than Venice.] There is a vibrancy and beauty to where I live this gratitude journal has helped me appreciate, to truly experience Florida is to spend hours driving through it. I have never been to Miami or Key West even though I live in the same state, and have only been to Daytona Beach or Saint Augustine [on the East Coast of Florida] only once, respectively. Northern Florida is different too, a deceptively long journey to reach the border with Georgia.




The geography of where I live does benefit me. As a person with disabilities, specifically, perhaps as Florida was developed later in American history (a fascinating history in itself), many of the buildings are newer and more compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. I informally compare this to New England, where are my family was originally from, where many of the attraction’s our historical and not guaranteed to comply with the ADA. As Florida initially was popular state for northern retirees, I know there is an entire industrial ecosystem of healthcare and mobility products for people with disabilities. As for the climate, I do not have to navigate my wheelchair through snow, and compared to my other experiences traveling in northwestern North Carolina, Florida is relatively traversable with only a few isolated exceptions. Even some watercraft (pontoon boats, in a makeshift fashion) and public docks can accommodate a manual wheelchair to go on the water.



Isabella
-   November 16, 2023
Today in my literature class, we had a really great discussion about the novel we just read. Everyone had so many interesting insights and perspectives, it was a truly enriching conversation.
This benefited me because it reminded me that I am super grateful to be able to continue my education in the field I love surrounded by other extremely passionate and inspiring people.
Claudine
-   November 16, 2023
I took a Mindfulness workshop over the course of 3 days.
It sparked my interest in meditation again and forced me to see the lack of self-care I currently have.
Seth
-   November 16, 2023
As something connected to yesterday's entry, I am grateful for the opportunities that I had to travel to different places throughout my life. I've gone to places like Orlando, Daytona Beach, St. Louis, New Orleans, Rhode Island and New York City, West Jefferson in North Carolina, and Japan. My trip to Japan specifically in the Summer of 2017 as part of a tour group is something that I think that I will remember the rest of my life, in that I am grateful for the people that made it happen and the opportunity to visit Tokyo, Kyoto and Hikone specifically. In the context of yesterday’s entry, I am grateful for my tour director and her husband, as both of them help to make my trip possible in terms of my accessibility concerns. (So, I am grateful for both the opportunity to travel and for the people who I have traveled with, both the something and someone.)
Travel does benefit me, I think. I developed a love for geography when I was younger, and still love learning about the history and cultures of the places I visit. Japan specifically was the trip of a lifetime for me, I had always wanted to go as a childhood dream of mine, and when I met my tour director by chance about a year before in 2016, her upcoming trip to Japan came up when I met her. I am very glad that my parents and I actually believed her when she said that she would take care of even the wheelchair accessible tour bus and that her husband would help my mother with transfers. (I know almost for certain that she under no obligation by the tour to provide such accommodations, a kindness and generosity that went above and beyond.) Though my tour director told me that some of the countries that she had previously visited not very accessible, I do believe that such a conversation of accessibility on a global scale is still a conversation worth having. Not just in developed nations such as the United States and Japan, though in the context on Japan I am grateful for the hospitality of the people I met there. I say this very much cognizant in retrospect of Japan's desire to emulate the West (beginning in the Meiji era) and the controversy of disability rights in the very Western countries it has emulated.


evelin
-   November 16, 2023
Completei o estágio de PDI nas escolas e foi um último dia muito agradável com as crianças.
Me deixou feliz brincar e terminar essa fase da faculdade.
Ginger
-   November 15, 2023
A patient thanked me for what i do as a nurse.
Grateful, respectful
evelin
-   November 15, 2023
Minha amiga me convidou para ir assistir um filme que eu queria muito ver e teria que ir sozinha, e me chamou mesmo nós não sendo próximas.
Me senti querida.
evelin
-   November 15, 2023
Consegui uma boia para brincar na piscina da Famerp.
Diversão.
Carolyn
-   November 15, 2023
My friend checked in with me about my first Nar-Anon mtg.
I felt remembered. I know my friend doesn’t understand the situation but she cares about me.
Seth
-   November 15, 2023
After writing my entry for yesterday, I decided to look further into accessibility in the airline industry. After my research, I realized that I am not just grateful for the general notion of new accessibility changes, but the individuals and organizations behind said changes. Delta Flight Products and UK organization Air4All, for example, have already made prototypes for seats that allow people in power wheelchairs to stay in their chairs while on flights. All Wheels Up, a US accessibility organization, too, have continued to pressure the US Congress and US Department of Transportation [DOT], and likewise the DOT has announced distinctly partial accessibility reforms surrounding the lavatories of certain classes of commercial planes that were not required to be accessible before. I am grateful for these efforts, especially as I learned more about them yesterday. I am grateful that I have never had my wheelchair so severely damaged before by airlines, though that does not mean it does not happen. The conversation to balance the safety of passengers and the need for accessibility is very much ongoing: both DOT and the airlines themselves have used safety regulations as a barrier to implementing accessible solutions as mandatory for decades. There are very much powerful interests at work here, both DOT and the airlines themselves, that built this inaccessible system. This fever is finally seeming to break.
These efforts benefit me as a person with disabilities. Though I do not know the next time I will fly, it appears that the Department of Transportation’s regulations will apply to all the major US airlines over several years’ time. As the US, according to my research yesterday, has historically been a leader in aviation globally, I benefit from these efforts if I ever travel globally. Importantly, this benefits me in that I believe it sends a message (of defiance, hope, whatever emotion you would prescribe to this moment) that society will no longer accept unreasonable excuses for ableism in industry, which airlines have previously been one of the most particularly egregious in that airlines are not covered by the ADA. Instead, the Air Carriers Act of 1986 and politics within the Department of Transportation have allowed the industry to create a separate system of standards that is clearly no longer adequate or just to passengers with disabilities. In the context of my November 9th entry, a subset of people with disabilities are interested in documenting their traveling experiences from the lens of accessibility.
Marquita
-   November 15, 2023
Just thankful for everyone present in my life.
It makes me feel better just knowing they are here
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Dr. Nicole
-   November 14, 2023
I believe in grace and Guardian Angels and today I experienced both in a fantastically practical way!
Despite thinking it was the wrong day ALL DAY today, this included not noticing the correct date in my digital calendar, I was nudged to check "yesterday". Once I saw that yesterday was today I was able to get to a much needed wellness appointment...ON TIME no less!
Seth
-   November 14, 2023
Since I am a person with disabilities, and I've been thinking about my disability a lot lately before and since my first entry on November 9, I am grateful for the wheelchairs I have. I received my first power wheelchair when I was three at the recommendation of medical professionals. Though my parents were concerned then I would get hurt in my first power wheelchair, the amount of freedom this accessibility invention has given me is truly life-changing. Mobility, in my case, is vital to my freedom of movement. I am also grateful for my current wheelchair: as I've gotten older I have had to understand that really nice electric wheelchairs cost thousands of dollars, and not everyone is as lucky as I am to have insurance options that cover this cost. From my perspective, casually at least, there is an economic question here, especially concerning disability needs and health insurance. My family and I have always tried pass on the gift of mobility to others, we always donate the previous wheelchair I do not use anymore after I upgrade to Shriners Hospital for Children.
My wheelchairs are beneficial in many ways, the most essential way to distill their impact used to say did they have given me the freedom of movement. Wheelchairs allow me to go places that I could not possibly go without them. This can be as simple as around my own house or the walks that I have mentioned earlier on November 10. Moreover, I know that one can usually also request special manual beach wheelchairs for beaches, and there are full outdoor power chairs designed for off-road hiking as some of the latest iterations on the true extent of this technology. The airlines, which I've mentioned earlier on November 9, also have narrow manual wheelchairs designed for the aisles of a plane, which is how planes are currently accessible barring pushes for new accessibility rules for the aviation industry. I am grateful for all the accessibility options available currently in my country and around the world, allowing me the freedom of movement enjoyed by all other people.

Ginger
-   November 13, 2023
Recognized my efforts to take care of him.
Good
evelin
-   November 13, 2023
Consegui fazer a prova de PPI.
Posso ficar tranquila quanto a passar de ano.
evelin
-   November 13, 2023
minha mãe veio me fazer companhia.
Me deixa mais calma com os trabalhos e provas de fim de ano.