By Shahar Masori
SAN DIEGO — A few weeks ago, I wrote about waking in a hospital bed with machines at my side and a sudden clarity I hadn’t known I needed. I promised myself then to live more fully in the spirit of the morning prayer: Modeh Ani, “I thank You.”
I should first say that I am fully healed. What sent me to the ER was not failure of the body itself but a severe reaction to medication. It was frightening in the moment, but I’m grateful to share that I’m back to normal now.
Since then, I’ve tried to keep that promise, not in grand gestures but in the quiet choices that shape a day. To live the prayer is to wake up aware that life itself is the gift. It means honoring the body that carries me, cherishing the people who stand beside me, and creating room for growth even when the world feels unsteady.
I’ve learned that chasing ghosts has no return. The past doesn’t answer back. But the present does, through the laughter of those who matter, through the beauty that still surrounds me, through the simple discipline of caring for myself. That shift has refocused my energy on what’s alive and what’s possible.
We are, in the end, the sum of our choices. And the power to grow, to heal, to change, lies within us. No one else can walk that path for us. We are in control, not of every circumstance, but of how we meet it.
The cracks in my life didn’t vanish overnight, but they no longer look like endings. They look like places where light can enter. And with each day I whisper, “I thank You,” I try to let that light guide me forward.
Because growth isn’t something given. It’s something chosen. And gratitude is where that choice begins.
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Shahar Masori is an Israeli-American freelance columnist based in San Diego.