I have a feeling this year will be one of those that needs slow unpacking long after it ends, when its challenges can be categorized and reassembled and made sense of. I know they have all been one blessing in disguise or another, things to be grateful for when I have the wisdom and perspective to see them.
So today I’m thinking about all the gifts of past I’m thankful for (that I didn’t recognize in the moment they were bestowed upon me):
- I’m thankful for how my Mom took the time to slice pickles for my lunchtime turkey sandwich every day and put the slices in a separate ziploc bag so the bread wouldn’t get soggy.
- I’m thankful for the women of our family, who spent many minutes and hours and days in the kitchen, mashing potatoes and beating eggs and spinning sugar so that all of us cousins and nieces and nephews could gorge ourselves into a holiday stupor.
- I’m thankful for my Dad taking me to the river and showing me the ducks and the deer in the fall. I am thankful that when the air starts to smell of cold I always think of these hikes.
- I’m thankful for my Stepmom teaching me that English Breakfast tea with milk is the perfect antidote to treacherous winter afternoons.
- I’m thankful for the day I was 10 and terrified to meet the newborn baby who grew up to be my not-so-little little brother.
- I’m thankful for the wild pack of girlfriends I ran with in high school and college, who taught me to do nothing less than open a restaurant for the 7:00 a.m. shift, pay the rent on time, fix a killer margarita, ignore an ex-boyfriend’s phone calls, finish term papers on non-stop international flights, find new hairstyles that hold your head up higher, and who also gave me some of the best pictures in my photo albums.
- I’m thankful for 140 characters from an amazing tribe of writers that make me giggle, agree, think, dream.
- I’m thankful for the family of friends in this city, our home-away-from-home, who fill me up with dinner parties and coffee dates and big city lights.
- I’m thankful for the teachers, mentors, professors and bosses who took time out of their days to teach me things I use now every day to put a few dollars in my pocket, to feed myself, to take a deep breath, to survive.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Gratitude!
Posted by: Dragonfly | November 24, 2011 at 06:51 PM
Yes, indeedy, NONE of my comments from the middle of the night are saved. This is okay; I might very well have left the kind of insane comments one leaves in the middle of the night.
What I know I wanted to say: I love that you have blended gratitude for big and small things here, and I am grateful that people in your life have loved you so completely and helped make you who you are, who is someone astonishingly lovely.
Posted by: Kim | December 02, 2011 at 05:06 PM
@kim--I'm so sorry to hear that, how frustrating. And I am sure they were NOT crazy whatsoever. Thank you so much for your kind words. You got it exactly right -- each of these people had a hand in the molding, including you!!
Posted by: Noel | December 04, 2011 at 01:51 PM