Giving thanks.

The weather is getting chilly and by the time I leave work each day, it has become dark and foggy...  This time of year always makes me want to curl up on the couch under a fuzzy blanket with a good book.  I have been spending more time inside, cooking and reading and watching old movies.  As Thanksgiving approaches (at lightning speed), we are fortunate to have many people to see and things to do - not the traditional big group holiday gatherings that I grew up knowing, but invitations for smaller, more intimate get-togethers with our closest friends and family.

This year I have a new-found (and unexpected) sense of serenity.  I am thankful for the new friends and family I have made through Missy and Red, who have been so incredibly kind and accepting of me and our new life together.  These friends and family actively choose to stay in contact with us and remind us that they are only a phone call or car-ride away.  I am thankful for the awkward and stressful times the three of us have weathered over the past few years.  The difficult times have brought us closer together and made me more complete as an individual.  I am thankful for the opportunities that seem to present themselves; mostly to me, but to the group as well.  Just when things begin to feel hopeless, when I find myself seeing only closed doors and dead ends...unanticipated possibilities materialize in an extraordinary way that makes me feel the universe is rooting for us.  Lastly, I am most profoundly and humbly thankful for the two most incredible people I have ever had the good fortune to know and love.  Embarking on this journey with Missy and Red has been the single most intelligent decision I couldn't imagine myself making.

(Allow me to go on a brief tangent...)

We reminisce sometimes about what we now refer to as "The Propositioning" - the event that brought us together, and we giggle at the impossibility of it.  Red and I were out to lunch at a bright, loud restaurant full of rowdy kids, business people getting away for a quick bite, and senior citizens out for their daily dose of excitement.  Red (in a way that only he could do) boldly proposed this idea..."Hey, it has been nice getting back in touch with you - you're great!   You know who else is great?  My wife!  Hey, maybe we could all be great together!"  Recent events in my romantic life had seriously shaken everything I believed was true and right about marriage and relationships.  Besides, I felt that kind of bravery should be rewarded!  I said "Well, math was hard in high school and I didn't like it, so I put it off til the very end of college.  Then I discovered that (surprisingly) math wasn't hard anymore!"  So math was hard, then it wasn't.  I figured I could revisit the idea of kissing a girl, even though I didn't like it years ago...  And the rest is history.

I am thankful for karma making an impossible thing possible in my life.  I hope to celebrate this for the rest of my life.