What I’m Thankful For… and this time, let it be about YOU…

When Thanksgiving comes around, it’s customary to go around the table and tell everyone what you’re thankful for. Most of the time the answer is “our children, health and a warm home” and they are totally acceptable answers. I am thankful I’m a mom, thankful my family is healthy and so thankful that I am now two years past our 12 days without power during Hurricane Sandy. I am thankful I can put food on the table and that my children have no idea how lucky they are and their biggest stresses are if their phones runs out of power or they have to finish their homework.

But what if the question was “besides our family, our health and our warm homes” what are you thankful for? What are you thankful for that sits deep in your gut? The stuff that feeds your base needs and desires and for some reason we seem to feel that by saying those out loud, that makes us selfish. I don’t agree. I think those wonderful things “that make you thankful to be YOU” are the saving grace for all of us.

So, I’ll start. I’m thankful that I’m “brave.” I’m thankful that a few years ago I jumped into publishing and I tried this crazy gig getting my books out into the world. I’m on 6 books now with two anthologies scheduled to come out in 2015. So, I’m thankful I got the guts to even try it.

Meeting Douglas Preston at the Blue Labyrinth Launch in NYC

I’m thankful for social media and authors who embrace it. For getting the chance to meet, on quite a few occasions now, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child who have written the most amazing series of books that literally stay with me through my days. (might I suggest you start with Relic and go from there) I’m thankful that I took a leap of faith and after 19 years at my job I decided to try another side of the business. If I weren’t brave, I might have still been sitting at the same desk, calling on the same people that I’ve been doing for years.

I’m thankful I’ll try crazy foods and that I’ll put myself into uncomfortable situations, that I’m stubborn and obstinate at times and thankful that if someone messes with my children, I am brave enough to open my mouth loud and wide.

I’m thankful I’m a pretty decent cook and 9 out of 10 times the family eats what I make them. Lastly, I’m thankful that my 14 year old Jeep Cherokee is still working and my ferret stopped biting my feet all the time.

These are the types of things I don’t normally say at the Thanksgiving table, but they are true feelings. So, I’d love to hear what you’re thankful for that has nothing to do with family and everything to do with YOU. It’s time to let it out – don’t worry, we don’t judge.