Giving Thanks

There will be a lot of posts like this out there and yet none of them will be the same. Each of them will have a different story, a different perspective, a different deeper meaning behind them.

I'm thankful (in no particular order):

*To be gainfully employed at a time when so many others are not. And to have a job that (at least most days) I really love at a company that, for all its faults, is one of the best things going.

*To have friends that know me and still love me anyway. I've still never figured this one out and that probably makes me even more grateful for their constant compassion, companionship and camaraderie. There aren't words to adequately convey this.

*To have a family, small though it may be, who love me and aren't a bit shy about telling me things I need but don't want to hear. Their unwaveing support has given me more than I can ever hope to repay.

*To know the love of animals. Unconditional love in its truest form.

*To not be challenged by anything more serious than the occasional sinus or ear infection when it comes to health issues. I can walk. I can run. I can lift and carry more than half my weight. So many people cannot.

*To have a home -- and own it outright -- in one of the best countries going.

*To be free to marry -- or not -- as I see fit. In some cultures, I could be banished or even killed for this.

*And finally, that Al Gore invented the Internet (or Internets as Dubya liked to call it) so that I can share these thoughts with you. And that, for whatever reason, you keep coming back to hear me do it!

I am truly blessed on so many levels.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. May your list be just as long and your table full both with love and kinship of those near and dear and a feast fit for a king.