This has been an eventful week for me. As a result of some nerve issues in my back, and the unintended, but unavoidable, consequences of back surgery some years ago, it was necessary for me to have back surgery this week. I am grateful to have a team of wonderful and responsive medical professionals, to have been cared for in a stellar hospital and, most of all, to have the most loving and supportive spouse and partner imaginable.

As most of us are, I am fiercely independent. I pride myself on being physically strong and I never want anyone to do things for me if I can do them myself. In the hospital, when I insisted upon getting up to use the restroom and assistance was offered, my response was “Absolutely not,” accompanied by the look I have heard my kids describe as the “death stare.”

I walked the hospital halls, with my husband and alone, and passed all of my therapy preparation tests—stairs and car transfer—on day one. And yet, none of this has been easy and certainly none of it has been painless. And I have come to recognize, once again, how small the world can become when it takes every ounce of concentration just to roll yourself out of bed.

It is humbling, I think, on so many levels. It is a reminder to be grateful for our abilities and all that we take for granted. It is a recognition that others face far worse and, often, permanently, and how difficult that is and how misunderstood. It is an opportunity to be grateful for the ability to heal, for the support of family and friends, for the warm caring that has come from so many.

There are so very many blessings that fill my full heart.