NaBloPoMo: a reflection

Okay, so posting once each day in the month of November didn't exactly go off without a hitch. I ended up with 29 posts in 30 days (though a few were fudged to make them published on a later or early date), which I think is pretty respectable.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful November. Weather-wise I feel like we're about a month behind here in Iowa. I'm having a hard time believing that December is right around the corner.

I may or may not take a little break from the blogosphere for awhile. The Nature Center's big winter fundraiser is this Saturday and I work every day this week. The volunteers serve to be both helpful and to make my day more hectic (kind of the nature of the thing... not their fault by any means).

See you on the flip side!

Thankful: Sunday

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."

~Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

Take a moment today, here at the conclusion of Thanks Week, to be thankful for the lessons you've learned and the teachers who have shaped you.

We're almost to the end of NaBloPoMo too, everybody! Keep pushing on through!

Thankful: Friday and Saturday

Okay, this blog post was written after the fact... because, let's face it. Thanksgiving is fucking crazy.

I'm thankful for a lot of things that I'd like to cram into these two days. I'm thankful for scandalous literature (but not romance novels... go figure). I'm thankful for pets that you love who can show you that they love you back in their own way.

I'm thankful for patio-grown tomatoes. I'm thankful for birds who come to my feeder. I'm thankful for sunshine and rain. The prairie and the forest. Winter and snow. I'm thankful for neo-paganism and finding a home. I'm thankful for kneading bread and a sense of accomplishment.

I'm thankful for surviving. I'm thankful for being on two feet. I'm thankful for scars and tears and the myriad of things that don't kill you and make you stronger.

I'm thankful for good health and for help when in bad health.

I'm thankful for promises and secrets. Thankful for soup. Thankful for mashed potatoes. Thankful for the music the wind makes blowing through the trees and the crack under the door.

I'm thankful for realistic fiction. I'm thankful for television and for turning the television off. I'm thankful for public libraries, free knitting patterns, recipe books.

I'm thankful for my hippie upbringing. I'm thankful for monuments to our nation and what they represent. I'm thankful for going where the wind takes me, following the river and hiking up the hill. I'm thankful for the gas pedal. I'm thankful for the brake. I'm thankful for keys and doors and safety.

I'm thankful for the four wheels and the two feet that take me there. I'm thankful for hands, yours and mine.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Thankful: Thursday

Red Apples
Originally uploaded by DIgital DI

"But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off."

~From "After Apple-Picking"
by Robert Frost

Today I am thankful for the bounty spread before me. I am thankful for the hands that carried it from field to kitchen to table. I am thankful for the earth that sustains me.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Thankful: Wednesday

When I was a child, I hated Iowa. There was always something better going on somewhere else. Nothing to do and so much time to do it in.

How is then, that I've stayed? How is it that I've grown to love the seasons the way I do?

Last summer I bristled at the foreign exchange counselors who had the same reaction to my home that I had in my youth. I was outright offended, embarrassed when they asked, "But what do you do here?"

I live here. I'm thankful for my childhood living here. I'm grateful for how safe my youth was and how loved. I love this place.

You sheltered and protected us,
You gave us energy.
From your breath we breathe.

~From "Earth Mother"
by Corcha Mayve Moondancer
a poet from my hometown

Thankful: Tuesday

My family. I like them:


My brother-in-law is in the picture below somewhere. I figured that I would include him in the mix because he isn't in the picture above. (Technically, he's the only one who isn't in there... Hollyn's pregnant with Lexi so really she's in that picture too.) Politically we agree on just about... oh... NOTHING, but somehow we both end up being reasonable people.

Thankful: Monday

I thought maybe I'd spend this Thanksgiving week doing a little writing about what I'm thankful for.

Today, I'm thankful for this guy:

The human, not the dog. I mean, the dog's okay, but that fella there... he's the best. He'll walk slowly up stairs with you even though he can actually walk up stairs quickly. He lets you believe that you're helping him set up the campsite even though you're actually getting in the way.

He'll tell you that you look beautiful on the worst day of your life.

Just look at him with that crooked smile. How can you not be thankful for that?