Thanksgiving

When we gather around the Thanks­giv­ing table, we say grace. Grace for the things for which we are grate­ful. Thanks for the things and the peo­ple that grace our lives. Thanks for the state of grace that allows us to keep going, through the good times and the bad.

Today I am grate­ful to be graced with so many peo­ple who lis­ten. The photo above is a pic­ture of some hur­ri­cane glasses given to me for my birth­day this year by my very good friend L. They’re gor­geous, aren’t they? I love the optic glass lines, I love their height and pro­por­tions. And they look great on my man­tel, which was pre­vi­ously dec­o­rated by a hodge-podge of stuff. (Not a big dec­o­ra­tor here, unless stacks of books on every sur­face counts.)

The gra­cious thing these glasses embody is the art of Lis­ten­ing. I had din­ner with the BH at another friend’s house before Hal­loween, in 2006. He is a Martha Stew­art Plus, and had filled hur­ri­cane glasses with can­dles, sur­rounded by candy corn. I was so taken with that par­tic­u­lar aspect of the decor, that I was gush­ing about it to L. the next time I saw her. L. remem­bered, and bought these glasses, well in advance of my birth­day, hop­ing all the while that I would not buy some of my own in the meantime.

How amaz­ing is it to have a friend who lis­tens and remem­bers to buy some­thing to please a friend almost a year ahead of time? How graced I am to have such thought­ful peo­ple in my lives. The BH, the same– I’d been rum­bling about a ham­mock for a while, but then gave it a rest. He remem­bered, and got it for me. My best friend A., too, was talk­ing with me about my cur­rent sit­u­a­tion on the phone not too long ago, and reminded me of some­thing that I’d said years ago, in col­lege, that helped me re-frame part of the sit­u­a­tion. She lis­tened, and remembered.

Finally, thank you to all of you who, espe­cially this last week, have read, have lis­tened, and who have under­stood. I can tell you’ve under­stood, not just by this week’s fab­u­lous site stats, which show me a higher per­cent­age of return vis­i­tors than ever before ; ), but by the kind, gen­er­ous, open, true, and encour­ag­ing com­ments you’ve left me. I’ve needed a lot of love lately, and I thank you from the bot­tom of my heart for giv­ing it.

I am truly graced by friends who Lis­ten, and I hope I can con­tinue to return the favor. Happy Thanks­giv­ing, friends.