Thanksgiving 2020 – CoronaLife Day 257

The year 2020 has been brutal for a lot of people. The world is in a tailspin and division in America has never been higher. The pandemic has sickened millions and killed more than 268,000 people in the USA. Many people are out of work, facing food hardships and eviction in the middle of winter. This is a year most people will be thankful to forget.

Still, there are things to be thankful for in my life. My family is healthy, even if we are not together in the traditional way this Thanksgiving. We are secure in food supply and in our home. My daughter is able to attend school remotely, and therefore safely, even as COVID cases spike to levels higher than we saw at the beginning of the pandemic in March.

I am thankful for friends to help ride out the isolation, and the technology to keep friends and family close even when apart. I am thankful for the services that allow us to get food and other necessities delivered to our homes. I am thankful for the vast amount of entertainment at our fingertips to while away the hours. And I am thankful for stretches of good weather that allow us to get outside the house to exercise safely distanced from others.

I am thankful to the scientists who are swiftly accumulating knowledge about this coronavirus that we may better battle it, and who are working to get us safe and effective vaccines to end this nightmare. I am more grateful than words can say to the healthcare professionals who are shouldering the brunt of this burden while sacrificing so much. And I am thankful for all the citizens who are acting as firewalls as the virus burns through our country, wearing their masks properly, respectfully distancing, staying home whenever possible, and giving up so much to try and stem the viral tide.

I am thankful for all the goodness and kindness I have seen people doing in this horrid year. The sometimes small things that make a huge difference, such as shopping for an at-risk neighbor, working at food banks, and donating money to causes that help those in need.

That is what I am going to try to take away from 2020. The good that lies in the hearts of so many people. I don’t want to remember the vitriol and the hate and the fear. I want to remember the love.

For all that I have been jaded by a half-century on this planet, there’s still a part of me that wants to believe that in the end light drives out darkness and that love conquers all.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Thanksgiving 2012

 In our culture, it’s easy to not be grateful for what we have. We are constantly bombarded with the newest gadgets, bigger houses, more elaborate lifestyles. And even in our daily life, we wish some things were easier/better, or that we had what someone else has, or that a dream we held dear would come true.

It is so easy to lose sight of what we have.

Thanksgiving is, of course, a good time of year to look at our lives and be thankful for what we have. Coming so close on the heels of Hurricane Sandy, I am immensely thankful for the sturdy roof over our heads, the electricity running through our power lines, and the easy fulfillment of our basic necessities such as food and water and heat. We were so, so much luckier than so many of the people not so far from us.

The other things I am thankful for sound familiar, and that’s because these things should be the most important in our lives. I am thankful for my family. I have a wonderful, loving husband who supports my writing dreams and me in every way. I have a healthy, energetic, intelligent Toddler girl who can drive me up a wall but whom I love with all my heart. I am lucky enough to still have my parents, healthy and active. And my brother, who I fought like crazy with as a child, but who I am so proud to have as an ally in my life now. My extended family—sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, mom-in-law, cousins, aunts and uncles—is warm and generous and I am grateful knowing that if I ever need them they will have my back.

I am thankful for my writing community, who have helped support and forward my dream—including all of my blog readers. My Author Chronicles pals have shared the burden of creating author platform, my Advanced Writing Workshop classmates help keep me laughing and energized, and my beta readers, Nancy Keim Comley, J. Thomas Ross, and Bob Drumm lift my writing to higher levels. Professional mentors (and friends) Jonathan Maberry, Marie Lamba, and Kathryn Craft have help sharpen my writing skills and keep me from giving up on this long journey.

I am thankful for my health and that of those I care about, for the opportunity to pursue my writing dream, and for the 3 mornings a week my Toddler is now in preschool so I can write!

Mostly, I am thankful for the love in my life.

Without love, the rest means nothing.

With love, I already have everything.


Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

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