Welcome to another entry in my Grateful Heart Monday series, where gratitude is the only expression of the day, which for today is for something that might sound a little odd, but it’s related to a very recent dental visit I had and a daily habit my mother brought me up with.
As a kid, my mother always made sure I brushed my teeth every single morning upon waking and at night before going to bed. I even had to blow air her way to show her my minty freshness to prove I had done my daily oral hygiene exercise, much to my irritation. In addition, she also often made me swish that original, brown-colored liquid Listerine in my mouth after proving I had brushed my teeth, which tasted oh, so, awful. Honestly, I hated doing both and never quite thought any of it was necessary. But, as an adult, it had become a well-established habit that grew to more of a daily obsession, especially when I started meeting plenty of alcoholics and addicts through my 12 Step recovery who had little to no teeth left and terrible breath. That’s when I truly began to feel appreciation for my mother’s upbringing with this daily habit.
These days, I tend to brush my teeth at least twice, and sometimes three times a day. I floss regularly after meals as well. And at the end of the night, I always use a whitening-based Listerine, which frankly tastes far better than the one I used as a kid! Considering that, I recently had my annual dental visit where they take that entire array of mouth x-rays and do the full cleaning as well. When the dentist came in at the end of my appointment, my heart was racing, as I always tend to worry I’m going to be receiving bad news given I do consume a daily sugary coffee. So yes, that idea of having a mouth full of cavities and possible root canals do occupy my headspace each time I find myself at my dental checkups.
In light of that, I’m grateful to report that the dentist, and even the hygienist, both reported nothing except flying colors for my oral hygiene. Even better was the blood pressure test they administered when my appointment began, as it was perfectly normal, something that frankly surprised me due to some high blood pressure issues I had a few months ago, that I now think was related stress and skipping my daily meditations.
Nevertheless, it always amazes me now when I meet someone who’s an adult that says they don’t brush regularly. That actually happened a few weeks ago when someone told me they brush infrequently and can go many days without doing so. They’ve already lost a number of teeth, which I’d think would motivate them to do the habit more regularly, but regardless, hearing this made me feel extremely grateful to my mother, who even in her alcoholism-based-state taught me some pretty darn good values to help me have a healthy oral hygiene as an adult and a full set of teeth.
Thank you, Mom, for teaching me this good habit as a kid that got engrained in me well before my adulthood. I have a healthy oral hygiene today because of you and I dedicate today’s Grateful Heart Monday to you for having this good habit now and to my recent dentist visit that I passed with flying colors because of it.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
