Thanksgiving

Showing gratitude is supposed to shield you from any number of ill-effects, so I try to remember each night all the things I am grateful for. We had a touching show of grace and gratitude this past weekend at E's house, with him offering to our Thanksgiving table that he was grateful for 1. me and 2. his new car. I was next so I said, I was grateful I was ranked before the car. I actually offered my thanks for the gathering of family and friends and our health and happiness, but I was also thankful for E for beginning that moment of thanks, because he knew it was important for me.

Today, as I whiz back and forth, trying to antcipate and address issues in relation to the Case Conference, I am grateful that I have more in my life than this. It is too often too big a part of my everyday experience. I am thankful for today's sunshine and for our Ottawa bike paths, and for E who stops by, and for leftover turkey, and for A's imminent arrival home.

I am also thankful to be reading Elizabeth Gilbert's new book, Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage. I started reading it last night and it is due back to the library today, but I'll try to renew it after A's swimming lesson. I'm not a skeptic about marriage. Even now as I experience the lingering after-effects of my awful 5-minute marriage, I still believe that marriage is a blessing, a sacred practice, and an essential component of social stability. For all her resistance to it, I think Gilbert sees it in a similar way.

Anyway, I'm thankful I still believe, even if I am nowhere close to marrying at the moment.