Thanksgiving

I am thankful.

I am thankful for my incredibly supportive and loving family, my brilliant friends, my encouraging mentors, my job, the fact that I can feed myself and have a place to call home, and that I can afford to go home to see my family for the holiday. I am thankful that I am not cold, that I had the chance to spend four self-centered years in pursuit of a bachelor's degree, that my mind is functional, that I am safe, that I am healthy, that I do not struggle with mental health issues, that I can see, that I can hear, that I can speak, that I can move, that I can taste, that I can smell, that I can read, and so many other things.

For all of this and so much else, I am incredibly thankful.

Perhaps it is the fact that I have spent the past 15 months working on policy issues related to poverty, health and well-being, equity, and unemployment, but I find myself becoming increasingly incapable of being appreciative of one thing or enjoying some wonderful experience without thinking immediately of the many that are experiencing the want of some basic need or experiencing terror, pain, sorrow, the polar opposite at the exact same moment.

Call me a pessimist, a naysayer, a negative nancy (or norman, why can't the negative person be a dude...tangent), if you'd like, but I will be thankful for this tendency of mine to be thankful and aware at the same time. It keeps me grounded, it keeps me connected with the rest of our society, and keeps me motivated to do something outside of the day-to-day.

Thankful.