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Giving Thanks 2022

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on November 20, 2022| Leave a Comment »

It is Thanksgiving week (United States). I don’t know if the Thanksgiving story we were told as children is true, but I would like to think that for one week or two that it was true. There was a bit of peace on earth and fellowship between races before everything went to hell.

But let us be thankful.

I am thankful I know people who have been through such horrific trauma allow me to be a part of their lives even though I can scarcely imagine or relate to their trauma. I pray they know I am trying to understand, and I will stand with them no matter what the future holds (healing, we all hope).

I am thankful for the family I still have living on this earth.

I am thankful for the family that has passed on.

I am thankful for friends of many differing opinions.

I am thankful for the LBGTQ people who have graced my life and taught me about love, life, and acceptance.

I am thankful for the cats that chose me to be their person.

I am thankful for dogs. All the wonderful dogs.

I am thankful for horses.

I am thankful for sunshine, flowers, insects, and birds.

I am thankful for the coworkers who mentored me, put up with me, and befriended me despite my unlovable ways.

I am thankful for retirement.

I am thankful for grandchildren.

I am thankful that my son found a wonderful woman to marry and the granddaughter that union brought into my life. Love you, Kays!

I am thankful my son found some happiness in life and was a father to six beautiful children during his short stay on this earth.

I am grateful for my son-in-law who loves my daughter and likes us. Love you, Sam!

I am thankful for my elementary school friends who still remember me and who share so many memories with me.

I am grateful for my high school friends, especially those who looked past what a jerk I was in high school. I was a jerk.

I am grateful for the years I had a little sister who drove me nuts, confided in me, and befuddled me. I am especially grateful for her sense of humor and her four children.

I am grateful Cyndi Erquiaga considered me a sister. God rest, sweet friend/sister.

I am thankful for gardens. Flowers, herbs, vegetables, bushes.

I am thankful for insects and for the fact my father encouraged me to study them.

I am thankful my father showed me how to fight chauvinism in the 1960’s. Thanks, Dad, for being a man ahead of the times.

I am thankful for the close relationship I have with my brother and his children.

I am thankful for color.

I am thankful for il paints, acrylics, inks, and watercolors.

I am thankful for an online homeschooling community that supported me through the years of homeschooling and gave me lifelong friends, most of whom I have never met in person.

I am thankful for those online homeschool friends I have met in person who still like me.

I am thankful for the Internet that has helped me bridge the gaps between fandom and authors and musicians I truly appreciate and love. It has also helped me connect to old friends and acquaintances, often revealing that acquaintances should have been good friends.

I am thankful for eighteen years in the real estate business as an office coordinator or paycheck provider. The networking is one thing, but the life-long friendships is another. Besides, I learned I was good at math.

I am thankful I am good at math.

I am thankful for artist friends and connections.

I could go on. You could go on.

There’s a lot to be unthankful for. A lot of hardship.  A lot of uncertainty. I get it if some folks can’t post what they are thankful for: they have a reason. Life is uncertain and we’re in the midst of a recession. I don’t mean to make anyone feel inadequate. Existence is moment to moment. I could list a lot of things I am NOT grateful for. But what is the point? Life is fucked.

I’m just choosing to focus on what I can this week.

I pray/hope you can, too.

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How is it Going? What are You Thankful for?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on April 13, 2020| 3 Comments »

No, really, how is it going?

Are you stir crazy? Convinced the government is lying to us? Convinced the government has overstepped its boundaries? Hoarding guns yet?

How about allergies?

Are you planting your Victory garden?

Learning a new skill?

Is life the same old, same old, but with less going out?

Are your kids getting on your nerves? Your spouse?

Have you braved the line at Home Depot to get a project finished (or just to complete a job you’re getting paid for)?

Are you ready for this pandemic to be over already and can we just get back to normal?

Tired of playing games on Facebook that require you to list the things you might use as a password hint?

Are you creating a list of things to be thankful for instead of things to be angry about?

What are you thankful for?

I am thankful I can cook from scratch and bake from scratch (I can read a cookbook). I am thankful I have been dirt poor and know how to improvise and substitute. I am thankful for the internet and social media (although the latter is a questionable blessing). I am thankful I have books to read that I probably will never get to and an attic to clean out. I am thankful the weather has been nice. I am thankful for antihistamines. I am thankful for blogs I can follow and read. I am thankful that there are many news sources and you can fact check what is being reported or passed along on social media. I am thankful for Instagram which is more about artsy photographs and family memories.

I am thankful for an old and beat up washing machine (I have washed clothes in a wringer washer… and in the bathtub). I’ve washed dishes in the bathtub. I am thankful for nice weather and a clothesline. I am thankful that I lived in poverty and I learned how to cope and how to improvise.

I am thankful that I have been homeless.

I am thankful for cameras, art, paint, fabric, colors, and eyesight. I am thankful I have a little left over to give to someone else. I am thankful for online church and a decades old collection of Easter decorations i have to put away tomorrow.

I am thankful we are not under martial law where I live, with National Guardsmen having to enforce the new restrictions. I am thankful to have a governor (and this pains me to say this) who has put her constituents first and who has made painful decisions to collaborate with other nearby governors on how – and when – we will open back up for business. That really hurts me to say: I don’t like this governor and I would not vote for her, but she has unequivocally stepped up to the plate when other leaders have refused to. I am thankful she is our governor.

I am thankful for my children and their survivor’s sense of humor because they grew up poor and know how to survive. It’s a wicked sense of humor.

I am thankful for electricity, public water, garbage collection, recycling, natural gas, and the US Postal Service. I am thankful I am able to vote by mail in the upcoming primary and the upcoming general election.

I am thankful for creative friends who made cards for me so I could send them out randomly to cheer people who don’t have a thankful list.

Have a thankful list? Comment here or on FB.

 

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