Being thankful….

I am grateful for a lot of things in my life these days. This is a strange state to be in when there are simultaneously so many things make my blood run cold in my veins — but for today, I’ll mention the good ones.

I am grateful for my past. I would not be who I am now if I hadn’t gone through those trials.

I am grateful for my connections, the friends and family I love, the people who make me smile when I see them walking along the sidewalk. I am grateful for the ones who aren’t here any more, though I miss them all.

I am grateful for the nonhuman lives around me: cat, squirrels, birds, earthworms, oak trees, ivy. As a species we have done so much damage and so much has been lost, but life remains and it will continue to remain, even in a changed earth.

I am grateful that we are not the only planet out there. So many possibilities for life, so many shapes that life could take, a universe of maybes.

I am grateful for art. The fact that people take inordinate amounts of time to construct books and music and OwlKitty videos and coffee cups with happy slogans on them fills me with delight. The fact that bower birds make what is recognizably art makes me think that lots of animals might be making art that is unrecognizable to humans, and that’s wonderful.

I am grateful that this year, this day, I am safe and warm and comfortable. Will that always be true? I don’t know. But it is right now, and I am taking the win.