I am Grateful

Each year, as Thanksgiving approaches, I stop and breathe (see? I can do it!) and take a moment to ponder my blessings.

I am grateful for the glow of the red leaves on the trees against the gray of the sky. The leaves are, of course, also beautiful in the sunlight, but it takes a cloudy day to make them glow with a light of their own.

I am grateful for the members of my family who will travel many hours to come join me to celebrate the holiday. I am SO looking forward to the three days of utter chaos, which will, for a few days after they leave, leave me grateful for the often-too-quiet calmness of my usual daily life.

I am grateful for my friends who will be hosting my tribe for dinner on Thanksgiving:

"Hi! I'm bringing 26 people to dinner for Thanksgiving. Does that still work?" 

"Absolutely! The more the merrier. I just LOVE the entire process of planning and preparing for the crew." 

The wonderfully puzzling part is that they mean every word.

I am grateful for our longstanding, gather-every-other-year, Thanksgiving tradition. In one form or another, this goes back several decades. It's been one of the touchstones of my life. It's been so fun to watch the next generation grow from babes in arms to adults with careers and lives and (some of them) babes of their own.

I am grateful for the members of my family who have died. I learned many lessons from them, both in their living and in their dying. I wish they were still here, I hope they have gone somewhere good.

I am grateful I am still here, Kate is still here, our respective cancers are still gone, and we get to wake up in the mornings. I am grateful for the new options in cancer treatments that mean my brother Tony is still here and will be able to travel to join us for the weekend.

I am grateful for the next generations (plural), hope for our world. I am especially grateful for my two grandchildren - I have no words for what they mean to my heart.

I am, still and again, grateful for my morning latte. I've had the drink almost every morning for thirty years, and never tire of it. The smell, the lift I get from that first sip, the always-needed jolt to my system telling me it's time to begin living this new day (which comes with the bittersweet awareness that today is the only day I have) - it's a morning meditation, nicely wrapped in caffeine.

I am grateful for you, the reader of my words. When I was walking across Spain, during my lone Covid days, during the last decade when I had to cope with too many hard things, I know I haven't journeyed alone. You come with me, cheering me on, helping me to take the next step. 

Thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving!