Happy Belated Thanksgiving! 2018 Edition

Hi friends,

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful food-based, family-and-friend-filled holiday last week!

Because at this late hour I am pushing my luck if I am to adhere to my goal of writing at least one post per month and, unlike last year, I don't have a ton of inspiration to draw upon for coming up with a new approach to this year's post-Thanksgiving post, I'm going to fall back on my approach from years past: writing a little list of the things for which I am thankful this year.

This year, I am thankful for:

• Husband, who leapt with me into the next stage of our life in City Where We Met.

• Kittens.

• Baby birds who have no business surviving, yet do.

• Everything it took to move back to City Where We Met: 

• courage, vision, stubbornness, perseverance, patience, extremely hard work, independence, distress and frustration tolerance, and a good dose of Damn the Torpedoes,

• and also the privilege of a professional network of colleagues who will gladly vouch for me, new colleagues who warmly welcome me, family and friends who I easily reconnect with (and who help me find a beautiful new home), and all the invisible little legs up that I probably still do not fully appreciate that made it possible for me to just up and bolt to a city I ferociously love, where I have a fighting chance to thrive and simply be happy, because many people cannot do that for reasons they don't deserve and can't control.

• City Where We Met.  I recently heard someone say with complete conviction that this city is magic.  It is.  I wake up in the morning to look across the street at a tree-filled, creek-threaded park where I often watch deer graze.  I've eaten some of the most delicious meals of my life here.  One of the best museums in the world is here.  One of my favorite theaters in the world is here.  Husband and I have gone out to the movies on a Tuesday night, eaten a crab feast, bought locally-made art, gone to a farmer's market, discovered a brunch place with incredible pancakes and always an open table (!!!), taken walks around a beautiful lake just up the street, and explored two food markets, and we're not even close to done throwing ourselves into everything this city has to offer.  The morning after we moved here, I sat in our little backyard and finally felt like I could breathe.  It took me almost a decade, but I finally get to come home.

• Rich, vibrant, courageous anti-racism.  There are many ways in which our ill nation desperately needs healing, and this is one of the cures.  I am so grateful for all of the resources and people who have helped grow my ability to be an anti-racist ally (including by better understanding the dilemma of celebrating a holiday with a deeply problematic history), and so exhilarated by the opportunities I have to continue to grow.  I am particularly grateful for my family's willingness to have actual conversations with me about difficult topics, and for the modeling some of my family have given me in how to do be much better at these conversations.

• My family.

• My brilliant, joy-giving friends.

• Wonderful and fascinating books, shows, and of course, movies.

And, always:

• You, dear friends who read this humble blog.

I hope you all have many things for which to be thankful, in which to find meaning, and with which to fill your hearts.

{Heart}