Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Keeping this blog gives me an opportunity to see my life as captured snapshots–where I am and what I’m doing from year-to-year. Again, my life’s changed a lot since last Thanksgiving, when I was day-jobless and scrambling to pay the bills on the meager and unreliable income of a freelance writer, which was a huge change from Thanksgiving 2004, where I was languishing at a soul-sucking job that I hated.

This year, my “Things I Am Thankful For” list remains unchanged–something in itself to be thankful for–save for one new, fabu addition:

1. My husband, Matthew. He is my best friend, the love of my life, and my soul mate. He can make me laugh, a gift I cherish more and more in this scary world, and he holds me when I cry. His sense of whimsy delights me, and his intellect thrills me. He completes me in every way. He is my shelter, my harbor, and my sanctuary.
2. Hobkin, for all the love and trust the little fuzzwit warms my life with every day. And the cuteness. Mustn’t forget the cuteness.
3. Family. Something I have not been able to be thankful for for a very large chunk of my existence–so long I’d almost forgotten how comforting it is to be able to have people who love me as a daughter and sister. I’m thankful for the reminder and the reality.
4. My friends: near, far, offline and on.
5. That my health, as crappy as it is, isn’t worse, as it could so easily be. I can dance, hear the music which is my husband’s laughter, see the adorable fuzzy beastie frisking at my feet, and hold them both close. Not everyone is that fortunate. And I am thankful that I can afford the medicines that keep me (mostly) well.
6. That I have the ability to compose creations of prose that I believe in and that others believe in (and that they want to pay me for). While my storytelling and literary skills are far below many people’s whose work I admire, I am improving year by year.
7. My beautiful home where I may run around in panda slippers and nothing else, and it’s all good.
8. That I am not hungry or cold.
9. That I believe in and love myself, a state hard won.
10. That I have the freedom to chase my bliss, even if I don’t exercise that freedom all the time.
and
11. That I have become one of the lucky few who loves their make-a -living gig. My new day job is everything I could ask for and never thought I’d have. I work with amazing people, folks who I can be myself around and not be ostracized or misunderstood (and who share my punctuation- and grammar-related idiosyncrasies), doing something I enjoy and that’s worthwhile, in a place that makes me smile because it’s just that beautiful.