So Much To Be Thankful For

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I hope you are able to spend this holiday with those you love.

As I think about this holiday, I am overwhelmed with all the blessings in my life.

I am thankful for my beautiful wife who does double duty as my best friend. She is the person I hope to grow old with. I am thankful that we were able to be married legally, and I am hopeful we will one day soon see marriage equality throughout the country.

I am thankful for our family. I am especially grateful for those in my family who reached out to me after my estranged grandfather died this month, and for my dad, who assured me the loss was my grandfather's. My dad is a rock star. I am thankful for our friends, old and new. I am fortunate to be surrounded by so many people from all parts of my life, from my past and my present, who I love and who love me. There is simply no shortage of wonderful people in our lives.

I am thankful for our home. It is a warm, comfortable, decent place for us to live with our fur and feather children. And I am profoundly grateful for our fur and feather children, especially Koshka, who was supposed to only have a few weeks left more than a year and a half ago. We know she won't be with us much longer, but we are grateful for every day she is with us.

I am thankful for our jobs. They are stable and secure in a time when that is not something to be taken for granted. They pay us enough that we are comfortable. I am grateful to be able to pay my bills when they come without worry and to have money left over for us to do some of the things we love. We are not rich, but we are comfortable. I could not ask for more.

And I am thankful that our jobs are rewarding personally as well. We get to do interesting and meaningful work. And for me, even when it is hard, getting paid to learn a language full time for a year is a dream job. I am also deeply thankful for the honor of serving my country openly and with dignity. I hope one day soon, our brothers and sisters in uniform will be able to say that as well.

And while my year began with the devastating loss of my beloved grandmother, I am grateful for having had her in my life.

I hope that this Thanksgiving you too have much to be grateful for.