Gratitude

"If I told you that I loved like an ace, then I'd be lying 'cause I've made some mistakes. But I'm trying with perfect faith! When I let you in, I began to win, and now I'm just all gold. After all I've done and the road I've run, I want to thank you. I want to thank you." -- Gavin DeGraw


I'm thankful for early-morning Thanksgiving mass at my high school and late-afternoon debates about genetics, Family Guy, and everything in between that almost always follow them. I'm thankful for family traditions, and even for the gaping slice wound on my thumb (because no holiday in my world is complete unless someone slips with a knife, burns oneself, or falls into the oven). I'm thankful for food, and for having enough of it to be able to use it creatively. I'm thankful for having a roof over my head, even if I complain about it incessantly. I'm thankful for two-dollar subway fares and the men who powerwash the Bryant Park station at one in the morning on a Thursday. I'm thankful for New York City, which is equally beautiful when it's packed and noisy and crazy and when it's eerily desolate (like it was during yesterday's commute). I'm thankful for an office window with a view of the Chrysler Building and a windowless clinic seat with an, um, equally gorgeous view. I'm thankful for cancer research, I'm thankful for my job, and I'm thankful for the contract I signed yesterday that officially changed my status from new hire to full employee. I'm thankful for my quick mind, my calloused hands, my strong back, my flat stomach, my freckled cheeks. I'm thankful for the love I've offered, the love I've received, the love I've made, the love that still awaits me. I'm thankful for the opportunity to find more things to be thankful for today and tomorrow and the day after that. I'm thankful for my ability to use words to express what I'm feeling and thinking, and I'm thankful for the writers and songwriters who inspire me when my own words fail. And I thank you for reading.