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Thankful

gSteph

The view from the other side of the room

In a tough year.

Covid ate my retirement party, cancelled our dancing and social life (not to mention the occasional lap dance).

Wildfire ate 25 miles of our local river valley, turning it into charcoal.
Ash clouds drove us from our home for 3 days, and smoke made breathing iffy for weeks.

Politics was more divisive then usual; it’s been a hell of a year.



So, being thankful this time around takes looking deeper than usual. To the basics, life, love, liberty.


I’m alive, at 66; that’s way above the average for Homo sapiens that have existed. And still have a reasonable percentage of my health and vigor. I’ve survived a couple of accidents that could have gone the other way, and an appendix and a lump that would have ended me but for medical advances of the last century.

I have a mate, 40 years running, that warms my bed and heart. Everyone in my family still speaks to me; far as I know, no one hates me.

I live in a country where, despite all its imperfections, one still can steer ones fate toward happiness and contentment. And the election is over; it’s getting quieter already.

And the forests will begin their slow recovery in the spring, green will return.


Happy Thanksgiving, ALL.