Being Thankful by Annette Dashofy

Thanksgiving is a mere few days away (how did that happen?) and yet I find myself suffering from melancholy this year. I fear many of us are in the same proverbial boat, trying to shake off the last few weeks/months and get our sh… STUFF (and stuffing) together. 

So I’m determined to focus on what I’m thankful for this year: 

An extended family that still includes me and my husband in holiday plans. We’ll be having Thanksgiving dinner at my brother and sister-in-law’s home along with their four kids, those kids’ spouses, children, children’s spouses and kids. You get the idea. It’s going to be a lot of people in not a lot of space. But there will be plenty of food and laughs. I’m also thankful we all like each other! 

Our house that’s mortgage-free. We may not have a lot, but it’s all ours. 

A career I love even when I have a deadline looming. Like now. The next book is due to my editor on December 1. But I’m thankful that I have an editor and a contract and an agent. I’m grateful that I get to write books for a living. (Okay, not a very good living, but see the previous paragraph). 

Kensi Kitty, despite her heart issues, is still with us a year and a half after her diagnosis and is still being a loveable brat.

A husband who can tell when I’m overworked and drags me away from my office for a day out AKA Mental Health Day. Last weekend, we drove a couple hours to a “lake” that is so low right now that it’s back to being a river. The old bridge from the old town, which was flooded when the Army Corp of Engineers built the dam back in the early 1940s, is fully visible once again. 

Had my life gone another way, I might have been an archeologist, so this sort of thing fascinates me.

It’s even making me think I need to have an archeologist character in a future book. 

And I’m thankful for my fellow Writers Who Kill as well as my entire writing community. It’s a wonderful group to be a part of. 

You know, when I stop to think of all that I have in my life, the melancholy does drop away. For which I’m grateful. 

Do you have a person or a group in your world that you’re thankful for? Give them a shout out.