As Thanksgiving comes to a close and I prepare to head back to work tomorrow, I can’t help but think of all that I’m thankful for over the past year and more.  It can be so easy to get caught up in one’s own responsibilities that one forgets to find a time to pause and recognize all that is in their life.  Thus, I am going to spend time considering five such points in this post.

• I am thankful for the color orange and for my younger sister’s hard work at making sure that everyone knew it was my favorite color in January 2015. I say this because I have many orange items now and, each time I see one, I think of the people who provided me with motivation and support that spring (and even now).  Just today, for example, I had such a thought as I was loading an orange mug into our dishwasher.
• I am thankful for my ability to walk on my two legs. Yes, I look a bit like Frankenstein at times when I do walk, and yes, years from now I will have damaged my body enough due to how I can walk that I will need to have surgery.  Please know, however, that I can see how I am continuing to improve, too.  It’s just…so…slow.  However, what keeps me going is my ability to see that I continue to improve.  I am thankful I can see it.
• I am thankful for the dog that my adventure partner and I adopted this fall (Optimus Prime…or, Optimus). He reminds me to find time to relax, to be excited about seeing each person each day, to appreciate and eat all of my food, and to enjoy snuggling.
• I am thankful for the daylight. The days are getting shorter, and yes, I now wake myself up to a sun light each day (which, has greatly helped me adjust to the time change).  Still, the sun comes out and provides me a chance to appreciate it, as well as to appreciate the dark and what it, too, reveals.
• I am thankful for my home. Not just the physical building that I have over my head, although I am quite thankful for that too, but my home is the community in which my adventure partner, Optimus, and I live.  It is full of people who have a different take on life in so many ways, which makes each of them beautiful and amazing.  I know that they are people I can count on if I need help, and people who will get up each day and do their best to consider others.

Optimus Prime (aka Optimus) snuggles in with me for the night.