It’s not a bad thing to take a moment, an hour: a day? …to think about this: regardless of the presence or absence of turkeys.
So today I’m being grateful for relative stability in this crazy business. For all the friends and acquaintances in the field who give me something to look up to and strive toward. For my NY agent, who is a longtime BAMF and near-superhero. For all the Tumblr buddies and fans, all the @’s at Twitter, all the faces at Facebook: all the folks who wander across the screen or through the phone each day and keep turning my mind so usefully outward (for getting stuck inside the writer-head and spinning the wheels with too much introversion is a constant danger): for the folks who take me seriously and the folks who refuse to. 🙂
I’m thankful for the world’s most astonishing husband, a BAMF in his own right and and someone about which not enough good can possibly be said. (Not that I don’t try sometimes.) For neighbors who think what I do is weird but will nonetheless defend it vigorously to passing strangers. For time to learn to do that weird stuff better. For people who’re interested in seeing the results, and who keep thanking me for things I did ten, twenty, thirty years ago. For being forgiven for screwing up. For support from my colleagues when I’ve needed it. From a chance to pay the favors forward, occasionally.
I’m thankful for not being in a war zone. For not having been shot in the head by terrorists because I wanted an education. For not being about to lose my job (or constantly in fear of it). For knowing that the ones I love are alive and well, or at least Maintaining an Even Strain. For (at the moment anyway) inhabiting a locality of relative peace and freedom (for such things are always relative, no matter on which continent one resides). For my health. For always having enough to eat that I can actually need to diet a wee bit. For the incentive to do so, and to pay attention to maintaining my health properly, that’s provided by the occasional email that says “WIll you hurry up and write [fill in name of book here] before you die??!”
I’m thankful for a roof over our heads. For enough of everything to get by and keep the Work coming out (and yes, thank you, Sherlock, for the reminder that it does deserve a capital letter). For a life, in general, that is better than anything I could have imagined when I was a kid, and which pretty much displays a tendency toward getting better all the time, in ways I never could have reasonably expected.
Thankful: that’s me for the moment. For a thousand other things, too, but I have no intention of boring you with the whole list.
And now I’m going to go start up the roast beef. (Because believe me, there is no escape from turkey around here at Christmas time, and I’m damned if I’m going to have it twice in one season.)