What We're Feeling Thankful For...

Rachel here: It feels a little silly to list what I'm thankful for these days, to somehow reduce the best things in my life to bullet points. It also, however, feels a little silly not to. One of our good friends came to visit us before M was born and, over dinner together each night, he stopped and said what he was thankful for in his day. He also asked for help with something. He wasn't talking to some sort of god, I don't think, but just putting it all back into the world. As a rhetoric major and, consequently, a student of the ways in which language is world-making, this idea makes a lot of sense to me. There is thanks and then there is articulating thanks, marking it for a moment and, in doing so, ensuring that you hold it consciously.

I have, obviously, much to be thankful for this year. There is this space that my mom and I have created, bridging our opposite-coast-existences, and the daily interchange I have with her because of it. There is each and every one of you, following us and sharing bits and pieces of your own lives, encouraging both my relationship with my mom and fostering new friendships through this odd little place called the interweb. There is the fact that my family has eaten everyday this year, that though operating with limited means we have had the incredible fortune of never wondering where our next meal will come from. I am thankful for John, a partner if ever there was one. I am thankful for my dad and getting to see him as M's Pamp on multiple occasions this year. I am thankful for my brothers and the journeys they have each embarked upon this year, endlessly proud of the people they have been, they are, and they are becoming. I am thankful for good friends, for the health of those I love, for the bounty of support I have been shown at every turn in the past year. I am thankful for getting to go to school, for getting to learn and for the perspective to appreciate this opportunity.

The list goes on and on and on. I am nothing if not fortunate.

There is one culminating moment of thanks for me this year, though, the cherry on top of a year that has been nothing short of awe-inspiring and humbling. I am thankful for M. You have transformed me utterly, little baby, and in every nook and cranny of my person I am better for being your mama. And so, to close, I want to follow our dear friend's lead and ask for help with one thing. Please, help me be worthy of M: help me catch my breath and pause, help me to remember that each moment is followed by another, help me to be brave enough to be the best mama I can be.

And Ma? Thanks. Just thanks.

So beautifully put, Rachel. I can't possibly add another thing other than the obvious, which is how I thankful I am for you.

From both of us, Happy Thanksgiving to all. Here's hoping you can share a meal and some love with people that matter to you.