Year-End Gratitude

My past year-end posts have tended to be about achieving goals and accomplishments. This year, it’s about just being grateful.

Grateful to have a home. The homelessness crisis is simply appalling. We saw thousands of homeless people in California, in every town, digging through garbage cans and begging outside of every restaurant. A new report on US homelessness finds the number of people without a place to live has risen for the third year in a row, driven by those in California, where one-quarter of homeless Americans live.

In 2019, a friend of ours here became homeless. He slept on park benches and found odd jobs to keep himself and his dog fed. We offered him accommodations but he didn’t want to be so far from downtown with no transportation of his own.. He did find a room with other friends in the city and his life is getting back on track.

In 2019, I’ve been caught up in the details of packing, unpacking, etc. But haven’t lost sight of the fundamental comfort of knowing where I can lay my head every night.

Grateful to have options. When voice work slows down, I write. If I don’t have any writing, I do a DIY project. As PR picks up, I do that. Yes, it’s by design, but it’s also a matter of looking for ways to express myself and earn a living. Freelancers hear “no” or nothing at all after most auditions, but that’s just part of the process that all freelancers go through. It’s the process that matters.

Grateful for support. My husband believes I am capable of much more than I probably am! That’s a good person to have in your corner. Family, friends – all are supportive. Negative Nellys don’t last long in my universe. I hope I’m as much of a cheerleader to them, as they are to me.

Grateful for good health. It’s not perfect. I have an immune system condition, a wonky neck that flares up every few weeks and diminishing hearing. But everybody has something they’re up against, even if it appears they don’t.

And I’m grateful that you read these little mind-droppings, I really am. When I began blogging nearly 20 years ago, I never imagined that anyone would care to read what I thought or said. A lot of those early posts were lost in website migrations over the years, but I don’t have time for looking back, anyway. It’s not how I choose to roll.

There are moments in politics that make me a little insane and a certain orange-skinned leader whose ubiquitous presence, I could do without. So I focus on being grateful that I live in a part of the world where I can speak out about that citrus-faced charlatan without fear of reprisal. There’s so much to be grateful for. May you have a happy, healthy 2020 and thanks for coming back to this corner of the web. It means the world.