Blogging under the influence...

Or why I am thankul this year.

I must say, a lot has happened in these last two years. Two Thanksgivings ago, I was blogging away in anxious expectation for my two lovely friends, K. and B. (accompanied by B.'s jolly good hubby) to descend from the northern regions of the state, and partake of (and participate in) my maiden turkey voyage.

There was a garden, and vegetables. There was sadness and loneliness and misunderstanding too. There was a recently re-elected president whose shadow cast itself in telling, and ominous ways over our collective psyche, we just allowed ourselves to ignore that for a fleeting moment.

I am thankful. Still, and despite all that has happened since then. I am thankful, in spite of my accumulating debt (through no fault of my own) and I am thankful in the face of recent loss. I still have so much more than I deserve. I know this. We all do. If we are sitting, writing our thoughts, reading others' in a free place, not behind bars, or hidden under make-shift shelter, or with hunger pangs in our stomachs, the kind that won't go away because there will be no supper tonight, or tomorrow or the next night. If we are able to take a bicycle, and ride it for the joy, or because we prefer it over the use of the car that we let sit in the garage, if we are able to pay for the half hour at the internet café... We are fortunate.

I am fortunate. I have love. It is sitting curled up in a huddled orange ball in the corner. It is coming back in ten minutes with my other K. who knew I needed a break for a few minutes. It is arriving in an hour when the organic free-range turkey, with its escort makes its debut on the scene. I feel thankful for that. For the friends who believe in me, for the students who came to class,( and brought their twin sister;) and thanked me for the job that I do. I am thankful because I am healthy and able to care for others, and I still do. I still do.

I am thankful that I can write words that excite, or incite, or reveal, if only to a precious few. I don't care. Today, that is enough, and I am grateful for that. And for my dear friends in CR, who have no reason to keep in touch, but do anyway, and for the girls of summer, and the East Coast crowd, and my mentors. There are so many reasons, and the pointlessness means less today, and the ennui, the misinterpretation, the oblivion, is not eradicated, it has to be there, always, just a little. If it weren't then I couldn't be so thankful for the respite today. And the champagne that is chilling, waiting for its creme de cassis...

Thank you.