A Blessed Thanksgiving to You and Yours!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! No matter how much your year didn’t go as planned…and I can honestly say that this probably applies to ALL OF US, we still have a lot to be thankful for. I honestly didn’t know if I would be here to be celebrating another Thanksgiving…and I don’t know about next year. That, in itself, is a small blessing. I mean, it is horrible and jarring and causes me to cry a lot, but honestly, it has really led me to have a bit more self-reflection on what is important to say…to do…to leave behind for others. I try to be more careful with what I say to others rather than just saying what pops into my mind. I make it a goal to check in on a friend every single day….whether by text, phone call or plain old mail. I make it a point of telling people I love them and I am thankful for them and proud of them. I don’t keep it to myself anymore, thinking they will know how much I appreciate them. I am honest…sometimes brutally so. Why did I ever bury what I felt? To be polite? To spare people’s delicate natures? We, as a nation, have gone over the top with sparing everyone’s feelings and I think we are not coping well as a community because of it. Do I want peace on earth? Of course I do, but I am no longer willing to just sit quietly and have my beliefs be trampled over for the sake of others. I have a higher calling to answer to, and that is my ultimate blessing….clarity in seeing that.

This Thanksgiving it is just Lily, Rich, Tallinn and me. The sun is shining and the temps should reach 50 if we are lucky. Really nice weather. I made monkey bread for brunch and the whole chicken is in the crockpot. I gave it a talking to this morning as I was seasoning it….telling the chicken it had to pretend to be a turkey since I couldn’t find one small enough for just the three of us. We’ll think of Joe as we have his favorite mashed potatoes…and of Tim when we have green bean casserole. Joe and Michelle are at her folks’ new home in eastern Missouri, and Tim is in Fort Collins, Colorado, ready to run his gym tomorrow for those who eat too much today. With a low-key Thanksgiving day in mind, we’ll head out to a park to hike for awhile soon. We have been trying to go to park each weekend to mix it up a bit. The pictures below are from this past Sunday at Hitchcock Park near Crescent, Iowa. I would highly recommend it! Nice trails and it is a $3 day pass or $20/annual. This is my icky week…so hoping get out and get some fresh air and exercise to help me feel better. I actually walked in snow on Monday….HUGE flakes that weren’t really expected, I don’t think. It was nice because I love the snow, but I was soaked through by the time I got home and it took Tallinn several hours to dry out too.

Thank you so much to everyone who continues to reach out to me to let me know I am not alone…that I am loved…and that you are thinking of me. It has been quite a lonely year for me, and I have been pretty sad about that. When you are living on a shortened timeline and you have your family and friends taken from you due to a pandemic, it just, well, sucks. People you are used to seeing and talking to often have dropped out of my life….and that was also painful to deal with. If I ever needed a support system in place and people to talk to about anything BUT cancer, it is now. Yet with the way the world shook out this year, many of those people dropped away. However, many whom I would have never thought would step up and be by my side did. People I would consider acquaintances stepped up and became friends…even if just through letters, texts, or phone calls. My heroes and heroines who kept me sane this year when my rollercoaster ride threatened to go off the rails. My boys…wow, have been wonderful. They call me several times a week and just keep me up-to-date on their lives and that is such a wonderful blessing. Special thanks this week to Ruth Ehler for the wonderful letter. Wow, I miss you. Marcia Chiarbos….miss your hugs and your quick wit. Thanks for the letter and prayer card! To my Aunt Judy and Uncle Dick…those Michigan socks are going on a hike with me today! I love them! I am so thankful for all of you! I am really truly blessed to have met so many wonderful people in my lifetime. I am blessed to be healthy even though I have terminal cancer…sounds crazy, but for right now, I am able to function pretty well and that is a blessing to live my time out this way rather than other ways. So off for a walk! Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!