After my second brain surgery, I temporarily had no sensory control over my left side; which is frightening, even though I was told prior to surgery, this would be a temporary condition.

As I lay motionless in a hospital bed at the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab in Chicago, I began to think about the music of Alanis Morissette, which is probably at least 25 years old. the song that initially came to me was ‘Hand in My Pocket’ from her Album entitled Alanis Morissette from 1995. I was unable to write but wanted her to know how impactful her music and art still are some 25 or 30 year later. I have three amazing adult daughters and all are somewhere in the millennial age range, so I asked one of them to send Alanis an instagram message to thank her.

I am almost 60, so not completely instagram savvy, but it appears Alanis, must be aware of the note and me, which is unlikely, and add me as a follower to receive and read message from me on Instagram, so another of my daughters handwrote a note that I dictated . She googled a mailing address for Alanis Morissette. Some weeks later the note was returned by the USPS, as undeliverable, so after downloading chrome as a browser, I conducted a new search, found a new address and resent, I hope she receives it, because nothing takes the place of the all-important handwritten thank you note. We all need to live lives of gratitude and show gratitude to others I will tag her in this post, maybe one of her people will notice the tag and she will receive my thanks. We have the same birthday-a birthday we also share with Marilyn Monroe 🙂 we are all three Geminis, whatever that means. My note to her is below:

Dear Alanis, I just want to thank you so much for your amazing contribution to music and society. I am a big fan of your music and art. I recently had brain surgery and have had weakness on my left side as a result. I created a playlist with ‘Everything’-which I hear as a love song intended for my amazing husband Dave, ‘Thank U’, and ‘Hand in My Pocket’,

These have been my theme songs for the past two weeks, providing me with purpose, inspiration, and hope. While listening to your songs, I practiced moving my left hand, I started with my weak left hand in my pocket, but now my strong hand is in my pocket and my left hand is flicking a cigarette and making a peace sign. Next week my left hand will be hailing a taxi cab out of rehab and back home. Thank you again for being an inspiration and by the way, we share the same June 1st Birthday, Very Sincerely, Christine Morrow

I encourage all of you, readers, if there are any to write and send a thank you note today to someone: your mom, a sibling or child, former teacher, friend, co-worker, Priest, Minister, or anyone who has served as a mentor-regardless of the time span.