What I'm Grateful For....

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Happy Thanksgiving! It's hear again. The holidays have really snuck up on me this year. 

It's been a really, really tough year. Probably my hardest. I lost my brother and one of my best friends within a week of each other back in April. It's been a bit of a blur the last 7 months. But the things that keep me going are the things I'm really grateful for.

1. My family and friends. We've been an amazing support for each other. Just being able to talk and laugh and cry and get angry with them. They are really the only reason I'm still functioning.

2. Stars. As Carl Sagan said it best: We are all star stuff. It's humbling and beautiful.

3. Coffee and alcohol. Silly, I know. But they're both amazing in the proper proportions :)

4. Knowledge and imagination.

5. Animals. They really know how to heal my soul.

There a million other things I'm grateful for but this will do for now.

I'd like to leave on a poem I recently found that has given me a lot of peace and I will now share it with you.

A long time have I lived with you
And now we must be going
Separately to be together.
Perhaps I shall be the wind
To blur your smooth waters
So that you do not see your face too much.
Perhaps I shall be the star
To guide your uncertain wings
So that you have direction in the night.
Perhaps I shall be the fire
To separate your thoughts
So that you do not give up.
Perhaps I shall be the rain
To open up the earth
So that your seed may fall.
Perhaps I shall be the snow
To let your blossoms sleep
So that you may bloom in spring.
Perhaps I shall be the stream
To play a song on the rock
So that you are not alone.
Perhaps I shall be a new mountain
So that you always have a home.
by Nancy Wood, Many Winters: Prose and Poetry of the Pueblos