Gratitude

Today I am grateful for family - by birth, by marriage, and by choice - that I not only love, but also like. I am grateful for my health and the health of my loved ones. I am grateful for my privilege - not as a social construct but as my personal, lived reality - and for my medication, which allows me to truly enjoy what I have. I am grateful for my partner, who challenges and supports me in a million ways. I am grateful for my son, who amazes me daily with his huge heart, iron will, and enormous vocabulary. And for our neighbors, who have created a community of parents and friends and welcomed my family in with open arms.

I am grateful for friends who love me enough to forgive me when I need it, call me out when I need to be called out, and who make the extra effort to be part of my life. I am grateful for my job, where I am treated like a valuable co-worker and a worthwhile human being, and for my online community, which gives me so much joy and inspires me to do so many things.

I am grateful, particularly in these trying times, for enough food to eat and clean water to drink. I am grateful for the Obama administration, who are daily inching this country closer to what it can and should become. I am grateful for all the people who give their time and energy and money to improve the world. I am grateful for my civil liberties, my reproductive freedom, and my health and dental insurance.

I am grateful for no-knead bread, domestic appliances, and central heating. I am grateful for the internet, and for the various technological gadgetry that enriches my life. I'm grateful for books, for music, for fanfiction, and for big-budget movies in which lots of stuff blows up. I'm grateful for sleep, and caffeinated beverages, and butter, and salt.

There is a gathering of friends and family in the barn. More friends are on the road, on their way to see us. The air is clear and crisp, and the house is full of the smell of baking bread and the warmth of a cozy fire. May you all be so blessed.