Amid the challenges, for this and more, I give thanks.

It is Thanksgiving 2021 and definitely time for me to consider the many blessings that have dotted my life over the past year, actually the past several years.

I always begin with my gratitude for having a job that pays my bills and a home that shelters me in more ways than keeping me out of the rain. I work for a wonderful organization that contributes to community and I have lived in my safe, pleasant apartment for many years. I am one of the lucky ones.

Since the pandemic, I have been blessed to work from home. Given past health issues, this truly has been a blessing.

I give thanks for the kindness of relative strangers, like my neighbour who volunteers cheerfully to collect my mail when he gets his.

I began meditating a bit this year. I’m just easing into it but I find a calm surround that lasts.

I give thanks for my coworkers who laugh and cajole as we get through our days. We are serious too but a shared sense of humour brings us together as a team.

Over the past months, I have been reading more and this lifts my spirits more than I can say. The beauty of creative writing is my passion. I love ideas and emotions, thoughts and styles, brought forward in unique tellings. Reading also makes my own poems and stories possible; it opens the wonder and what-ifs and why-nots.

Ultimately, I’m grateful for the past, the present and the future. There have been challenges, heartbreak, defeat – in other words, there has been life. But through even the worst of it I have always grasped and clung to hope.

Happy Thanksgiving.