Thanksgiving

Every year at this time I ask myself what I am thankful for. The list seems to get longer every year. I am thankful for my children who all seem to be happy, healthy, and thriving in this turbulent economic environment. They all seem to have found good women in their choice of life companions. I am blessed with a healthy happy grandson who delights me and reminds me of all the wonders I experienced with my children when they were young.

I am thankful I am no longer in the job I held that kept me stifled and depressed though I am not thankful for the lack of a job as a source of steady income. I am grateful for all the friends who support me in my endeavor to carve out a career with the written word. It is because of them I don’t give up.

I am grateful for my dog who’s energy and exuberance takes me on daily walks and bring new friends to my door because everyone seems to love to stop and visit with her as they pass by my house, delivering mail or taking a walk on their lunch break, or whatever errand has them passing by on their way down Route 136.

I am grateful for the Sugar Bowl that hosts the Darien Times editors and anyone who chooses to join them for coffee on Thursday mornings. The conversations are lively and sometime laced with arguments and heat but always I come away learning something new. And I’m grateful that the Darien Times chooses to print my letters week after week. Hopefully, what I say is helping other people even if it is merely to entertain them with a walk down nostalgia lane.

I am grateful for Pelicci’s where I wandered in last night in jeans and a sweater with good friends for a hearty Italian meal and a refreshing, icy cold Gray Goose martini, a wonderful venue to spend a Saturday night chatting, and catching up with old friends and getting to know good friends.

I am grateful to still be in my house despite my lack of income. Somehow the money comes and I’m able to stay month after month continuing my endeavors and working from home where I can combine my creative pursuits with cooking and gardening and just admiring the wonderful world we live in that I see through my windows – the woods that change with the seasons and hold me spellbound. The birds in their vast variety, colors, and songs that always seem focused, self-sufficient and light hearted. The animals not always seen but always there under cover of dark harboring in the same woods – the coyotes, foxes, raccoons, opossums, deer and whatever else I have not yet had the luck to see. I am grateful just to be.