Gratitude 2024

I am not a big Thanksgiving celebrator. We don't have extended family in this country so have never traveled to gather, though when I was a kid we took in all the graduate students from my dad's university department that had nowhere to go. My daughter is on the other side of the country. And I have issues celebrating holiday based on a falsified history.

But, I do love that families across our country make a major effort to come together for this holiday and I had amazing families that took me in when I was in college thousands of miles away from home. They treated me like one of their own and made me feel loved and welcome. Now, there are people doing this for my daughter and for them I am extremely grateful!

We will have a small gathering at my parents' house this year with the three of us and another couple that we've known since the 1970s so I am glad we can all be together. It will be lovely, yummy, and warm. 

All that aside, this is a time of year that I turn inward and take time to be thankful and grateful for the people and things that I have in my life.

• Family. This is a given for me, but I know that isn't true for everyone. Sometimes family is blood and sometimes they are chosen. This year I plan to reach out to both kinds of family and let them know how much I appreciate them. 
• Health. Yes, I could lose weight and be in better shape, but I am healthy. It feels that, lately, many around me are dealing with major medical problems and I really am appreciative that I and my relatives are doing so well. I am also grateful that those friends have access to health care and treatment, in this country that is, unfortunately, a privilege that not all of us have.
• Work. I have a full time job and I am not worried about finances or health benefits. What a relief.
• Friends. I appreciate my friends that live here in town as well as those that are farther away in this country and abroad. I hope they know how much I love them and how important they are to me. I am especially grateful for those friends who are with me through the happy, the sad, the frustrating, and the ugly; you know who you are.
• Santa Barbara. I love living here in this town with both the mountains and the ocean only a couple minutes away from my house. Even though I hang out at the beach, it is important to me that I see the ocean almost daily.
• Books and the blogging community. I appreciate that I have a fantastic local indie bookshop (Chaucer's), that I can afford to buy the books I want, that I can read, and that I can share all of that with others who love books and reading and sharing as much as I do, including my two book groups and all of you.

What are you grateful for at this time of year?