This is not a post about retinopathy or losing eye sight. 

This is a post about how easy it is to see what is right in front of us, what we deal with each day, and miss the bigger pictures.  

When it comes to diabetes, sometimes the day to day management and challenges can be so much to handle, we forget bigger picture blessings like relative good health, the ability to retain employment and to take care of our families, and the tools we have at our disposal to improve control. 

I wish it were as easy to ignore the bigger picture consequences of bad behavior, to forget the looming
specter of complications like damage to our eyes, our kidneys, and our hearts and brains.  Those terrible things just seem to fit more easily in our hearts and minds, nestled between the high bloodsugars, the low bloodsugars, the food that's not so good for us, and the days we miss exercise.   

Think about it.  When your bloodsugar is high, what do you think? 

For me, after the initial treatment, my brain jumps to the consequences.  I wonder what sort of damage the 352 mg/dl I'm dosing for is doing to my body.   I think consciously about the complications those bloodsugars are causing for too many minutes every day.   I think of how many moments of my life might be ticked away because of high or low bloodsugars.  

Now think about this.  When you've  had a few days of good control, what do you think? 

For me, I wonder when the other shoe is going to drop.  I think "Wow!  Hope I can do this again tomorrow!" and then "Yeah, I probably won't."  I catalogue what I've eaten and dosed, I look at my work schedule and calculate my stress levels. 

What I don't do, almost ever, is think of how lucky I am.  I don't think of how fortunate I am to be able to have those perfect days.  Nor do I think of how blessed I am to have tools that help me to stay healthy and fit. 

What I do, what I think so many of us are inclined to do in the day to day when we're not conscious of the bigger pictures, is wonder toward the next difficulty.  

Lately, I've realized how sad that really is. How sad to live like that, in a state of worry that never seems to desist.   In a state of losing sight of the good fortunes we're afforded.  

This Holiday season, I hope you'll join me as I try to count one blessing every day. 

I'll try to blog about one of them each week here at dlife, through the first week of the new year.  

If you want to share yours, I'm happy to hear them - either here or by email or on Facebook.  Perhaps you can help me recognize some I've not seen.