Giving the thanks, day 1: five working senses, yo.

I have a tendency to worry about really obtuse, oddball things. Actually, I think the worries themselves are normal; I just kick them up a notch. Take the normal young-woman fear of getting assaulted. When I was in college I used to worry about being abducted, raped, killed, and left for dead and hunters would find my bones in the middle of the Tennessee woods a year later way more than getting my purse stolen in the middle of the mall parking lot. 

See? Weirdly irrational. Let's call it imaginative. 

Anyway. One of the goofy things I worry about is losing a sense. Going blind, deaf, what have you. But of course I don't just worry about going blind--I think about getting my eyes burned by acid. Losing my hearing in a freak knitting accident. Being so badly burned that I lose my sense of touch.  I probably worry about losing my sense of taste after burning my tongue on hot pizza more than a normal, healthy, rational person would.  (I know. I know.)

So. I'm thankful I have all five senses. Every time I read a book (actual or virtual) I love that my eyes are seeing the written word. When a great song comes on the radio I love that I have ears to hear it. When I touch a sumptuous knitted sweater I love the softness against my palms. Smelling cookies in the oven is a little bit of heaven, as is the first taste from a new bottle of wine. Do I take them for granted? Of course. I'm human. But every once in a while it hits me--hey, I could lose these in a freak accident--and I enjoy the moment a little bit more.