Gratitude

As the curtain falls on another Thanksgiving weekend, it occurs to me that it might be a use full exercise to spend some time thinking about all I have to be thankful for, in no particular order.

I'm thankful for good health.  My family's and mine.  I lost a longtime friend - David Easterling - to a glioblastoma earlier this year.  Presently, four people in my orbit - three of them friends - are fighting some form of cancer.  At my age, I guess, every healthy day is a blessing. 

I'm thankful for my family.  Full stop.  I am so blessed to have Jude as my wife and JP and Joe as my sons.  

I'm thankful for my work.  After 30 + years as a practicing attorney, I'm blessed to have built a family law practice and reputation that allow me to earn a comfortable living.  Clients place their trust in me to help them through, perhaps, the most difficult time in their lives.  I don't take that responsibility lightly and I never will.

I'm thankful, at 58, to be able to run.  Maybe not as fast as I once did or for as long, but to be able to go out several days a week and run, pain free, is a gift.  A true gift.  

I'm thankful for our church, St. Patrick.  It has been hard, to be sure, losing Father Hammond to the Cathedral of the Incarnation.  We miss him terribly.  However, it was time for him to take on more responsibility at a larger church.  I know that and I'm very proud of him.  Every Sunday that I am at St. Patrick, I feel a sense of peace and a sense of belonging.  That's no small thing.

I'm thankful for books and the writers that write them.  Reading for pleasure is, well, everything to me.  Fiction.  Non-fiction.  Biographies.  Memoirs.  I love it all.  Last year, I discovered Walter Mosley and Easy Rawlins.  This year, it's John D. MacDonald and Travis McGee.  Give me a good book and a few minutes of solitude.  That's contentment for me.

I'm thankful for music.  Right now, as I write this, I'm listening to John Coltrane's "Coltrane For Lovers" (Deluxe Edition).  It's been my go to album in 2024.  

I'm thankful for podcasts.  I pass so much time in my truck, commuting to and from work, listening to podcasts.  Bill Simmons.  Press Box (Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker), Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson (Plain English), Ryan Rusillo, the Run Up (Astead Herndon), and so many others.  

I'm thankful for Fall.  It's my favorite season of the year.  Every August and September, as I fight the oppressive heat, what keeps me going is thinking about September 30, when my boys and I put up my Halloween decorations at work.  All kinds of crazy stuff.  My law partners tolerate - barely - my love of Halloween and all of my crazy zombie heads, etc.  I love October 1 - January 2, every year.  Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  

I'm thankful for our cats, Mini (18 + years old), and Angus.  Stray cats that found us and enriched our lives immeasurably.  

I'm thankful for a good bourbon, preferably Calumet Farms 15.  Maybe a little too thankful!

Happy Thanksgiving.