Thanksgiving alone was difficult. I was the family Thanksgiving hostess for decades, and this may have been my first solo Thanksgiving since my late 20’s. In the course of my day, I recited the traditional litany of things to be thankful for at least a dozen times; children, grandchildren, all family and friends, the loved ones who touched my life and are now gone, thankful for my health, thankful for a bountiful life, thankful to be buoyed by gratitude—and still…
But as the day and subsequent days passed, as I exhaled, as humor came back, I realized there are many little things, things that are seemingly unimportant, things that do not get the attention they deserve, that I am deeply thankful for. My list below, in no particular order.
I’m thankful for programmable coffee makers. Java junkies do not pick up their first cup on the way to work. Coffee comes before my eyes are fully opened.
I’m thankful for Hershey’s chocolate syrup; an emergency hit of chocolate when there are no cookies in the house. I have never run out of Hershey’s syrup.
Silver hair rinse; which allows me to think of myself as a silver fox rather than a woman with gray hair.
My playlist; mostly “girl power” songs, which ALWAYS salvages a bad day, a bad mood.
My vibrator; if you are a woman, and not just a woman alone, you should have one. Period.
Excedrin p.m.; a consequence of all that coffee but it keeps me off of prescription meds. Along the same lines, I am thankful for a dark bedroom.
The side-view mirror on my bike; I could never ride in traffic without it. Frankly, I am thankful for everything my bike represents and for what it allows.
I am thankful that my weed dealer delivers.
I am thankful for Big Bang re-runs.
I am thankful for CVS. Key West has a mega CVS, it could pass for a Walmart. Only thing missing is meat.
I am thankful for the games on my phone. Don’t know how I lived without them. They successfully fill in all those times when I don’t want to think (and that’s a whole lotta filling in).
But perhaps this year, I am most thankful for, literally, the roof over my head. Hurricane Irma was an event I was not at all prepared for or equipped for. A major hurricane headed your way is unlike any challenge. Think about it—a marriage, a new job, a new baby, enlisting into a branch of service—they all come with some idea as to what you’re in for. But not a hurricane. It’s a big, fat, black hole, a question mark as to where and how you will land. I landed on all fours. I am so, so lucky. And thankful is too generic a word to express how grateful and fortunate I am.
photo credit: odyssey