Thankful

So many leaves of gold

Thankful for this Thanksgiving week, for the week that was.

For a 5K run on Thanksgiving morning, which I somehow managed to complete, though my running these last months has been spotty at best (even finished with a time faster than I expected!). So maybe there’s hope, that even though I am not as fast as I was a few years ago, that I can still show up and surprise myself.

Thankful this week for the kind woman at the county tax collector’s office, who talked me off a ledge and explained what the alarming “tax due” notice that I received in the mail meant. Basically? Nothing that I need to worry about. It is always a very good thing when a tax official tells you not to worry about a bill. But when you get an unexpected one that is folded up in bright orange paper? You take notice. And you wonder. Maybe you worry. Until someone answers the phone and helps you, even though it is minutes before the office closes and Thanksgiving is days away.

Thankful for the work I had this week, for the chiropractor that I work for who gives me needed adjustments. Thankful for a trip to Target where I bought dishwashing liquid and face soap, spray cleaner and a new sweater that caught my eye weeks ago and which I finally decided to buy. It was not in my plan to buy a sweater for myself this week, but I’m glad I did.

Thankful that I snagged the last carton of heavy whipping cream at the grocery store two days before Thanksgiving. It wasn’t even for pie! It’s an essential ingredient for my morning tea. I would have been sad if all the pie baking people hogged the heavy cream and there was none left for me. One of my friends reported that Costco was out of eggs in his town. Costco! Out of eggs? Whoever would have thought?  Thankful that my little grocery store had plenty of those. And cream, too.

Thankful for the chance I had to walk at the park this week, golden afternoons where I passed a dog named Wally who had his long hair held back in a pony tail (doggy tail?) by a rubber band above his eyes.

Thankful that my dog didn’t starve this week. He is so picky! He will not eat just dry food. Or even dry food mixed with a little fancy wet food. It has to be all of that and then whatever meat I can scrounge up from what we’ve been eating lately. He will usually be OK if I add a little chicken breast or hamburger. But he doesn’t like the same thing too many days in a row. Variety is key, he tells me. This week I had both bits of chicken and hamburger for him, so he ate without giving me too many dirty looks or sighing too loudly.

Thankful for the beauty that is outside my front windows now. So much yellow in the turning trees, with dollops of red and orange sprinkled throughout.  When the wind picks up, the leaves tumble down. Raining leaves, it is. I could watch that show for hours.

Thanksgiving Day was what it was. No Norman Rockwell painting come to life this year. But somehow, it was fine. I am where I am. We are where we are. Figuring things out, little by little. Steps forward, steps back. Sometimes a lot of steps back.  Maybe the backward steps aren’t mistakes. Maybe they are part of the journey. And whoever said there was an absolutely perfect path anyway?

So much to be thankful for, this world with dogs named Wally and helpful tax office officials, 5k community runs and leaves that rain down like golden fire. Almost too beautiful, it is. Life and breath. Just to be here is a gift. Just to have been here this week was enough.