debates – usually good natured –  here, have another piece of this, isn’t it good?  I found this awesome little store and, oh, you should try the coffee I found, too!  Paul! Stop touching that stuffing, dinner is in an hour!  No, no, you do not have time to go play football, go set the table and don’t forget the chair from downstairs, we need another! Could someone please mash these potatoes?  –  and time spent together reveling in the warmth of it all.

My whole life I have felt this spirit, this anticipation, this happiness overtake me, growing stronger and stronger as Thanksgiving approaches.

Feeling this happy aways brings about introspection.  It is my nature, I suppose, to analyze.

Why am I happy?  What does Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and New Years, this small span of time, mean that I get so giddy and satisfied?

I’ve been asking myself for…  ever.  I have no answers but I do know that even the leanest, hardest years have ended well, ended in this same spirit of overall happiness.  For me, at this time of year, everything ceases to matter except the fact that life? Is good. It is so, so good.

And I am thankful.

I am thankful that I have a partner who makes me happy.  Oh, we fight and bicker and some days want to poke each others eyes out but he makes me a happy person.  He makes me laugh and he makes me cry, he irks me to the point where I can’t see straight then gives me that crooked, little boy grin and says something that makes me laugh out loud, no matter how hard I try not to.  He  accepts me exactly as I am, he respects me and makes me feel smart and funny and sexy and loved. He has my back.  Always.

I am a better person because he is in my life.  Cliche as it may seem to say he completes me.  He is the best choice I have ever made.

I am thankful for a son who is turning out to be an amazing person.  He’s so nearly an adult and I look at him and cannot figure out how I…  I!…  made such a person.  He’s so big hearted, so caring, so accepting.  He loves with everything he has and gives so much to those he loves.  He is growing, every day, into a man.  He is responsible and hard working – though, like all teenagers, also lazy enough that I know he’s normal.

I sometimes look at him and feel like my heart may explode. He is the best thing to happen to me, ever.  He is my heart.

I am thankful for my family.  The closeness we share is a tangible thing.   The love can be felt, like an insulating fog, when we all get together.  We fight, we yell, we hug, we tease, we talk loud and over each other and even throw things at one another on occasion.  We have no unrealistic expectations.  We accept each other, completely, no matter what.  My mother is the best woman, the best person I have ever known.  She is my hero.  My brothers are exasperating, know it all, irksome boys who are now all grown up, one with a family of his own, and they make me so proud I can’t see straight.  My dad is…  well, my dad is a blessing. Every time I see him I am thankful. A few years ago we weren’t sure he’d be around to see more holidays.  He is the man I will always look up to and I am reminded of him daily in my own choice of man.

I am thankful for my friends.  I tend not to be the type who gathers tons of them but keeps a few close and tight – which makes it extremely odd that, at this time in my life, I have so many that are truly exceptional, who love me, truly love me as I am without expecting me to change to suit some idea of who I should be. Friends who I can trust, with my whole heart. Friends that feel more like family than friends.

I am thankful for my job.  It can be crazy and stressful and I work damned hard but I have a boss who gave me a shot, who gives me a shot every single day, at doing things I wasn’t sure I could do two years ago.  I work with a team that is a true team, who works and communicates and fights and laughs together every single day. The fact that we all work from our own homes, do not see each other face to face or look each other in the eyes and still manage to work this closely amazes me and overjoys me.  . I appreciate each and every one of them.   Work would not be the same without them.

I am thankful to all of you who write for EdenCafe, who read EdenCafe, who do videos and blog reviews, who make my job easier to do and make it the success it is.  I am a blunt, short spoken person and I don’t always show or tell you all how much I appreciate you but I DO.  Gods, I do!  Without you, what I do would be empty.  Thank you for making my job fun, challenging and something to look forward to every day!

I am thankful for a 30 year old motorcycle that gets us around all summer long.  She is a grand old dame and it will break my heart if we ever replace her.

I am thankful for my pets, for the kitty cuddles and puppy breath, for the barking and purring and endless entertainment brought by laser pointers.  And for the pure love and comfort they bring when I am down.

I am thankful for good pens, great coffee, hot baths and flickering candles.  They are little, material things but they improve my life and lift my spirits every day.

I am thankful to be turning 41.  I have hit “my forties” and I like myself.  That?  Is a good place to be.

I wish you all the Happiest of Thanksgivings.  No matter how you celebrate or if you celebrate, take a moment from your day today to think about all there is to be thankful for.  Reflect.  Gather those you love close, if only in your heart.

If winter is slumber and spring is birth, and summer is life, then autumn rounds out to be reflection. It’s a time of year when the leaves are down and the harvest is in and the perennials are gone. Mother Earth just closed up the drapes on another year and it’s time to reflect on what’s come before.
~Mitchell Burgess, Northern Exposure