I just took my first shower in exactly one month. Don’t get me wrong. My hygiene has been pretty good. I mean a real get under good-and-hot water, get all the way wet, and stay there a while kind of shower. A ruptured appendix, hospital stay, and a drain tube I was supposed to keep dry kept that kind of shower off the docket from February 15 till today. And tonight’s shower sure felt good. And I am so thankful for that simple joy. Which reminds me of all other sorts of joys I can be thankful for, lots of which I often take for granted. And I firmly believe, of all the choices about how to live, gratitude is one of the best picks for filling up that empty spot that lurks somewhere in every human heart. Yeah shower! Yeah this special feeling of thankfulness–sadly too often absent–that feels even better than the shower!