For What I Am Vastly Thankful...

I try to keep my personal life out of this blog. It is really meant to be an impersonal funny column like that you find in life section of the paper.

Thanksgiving, though, yields personal reflection.

As I drove to over to my parents house, where I now sit in the California sun, enjoying the 70 degree weather and the sounds of the waterfall, I thought about Thanksgiving.

I knew at the coming dinner I would be asked what I am thankful for.

And the answer is so immense it is hard to begin.

2004 began with the aftermath of having been beaten up by my boss and best friend. I was subsequently (and illegally) fired. Thereafter loosing my house became a real possibility. This was followed by a car accident and several months in the hospital where no one was really sure what would become of me.

Last Thanksgiving, recently out of the hospital, having just had several staples removed from my leg, with no job, I felt generally beaten. I still had my house, through the generosity of my father, which I was grateful for last year as I am this year.

But I was a soul in purgatory. I had lost my career and most of my friends. I had lost direction and interest in finding it.

In the early part of this year, I cycled through a few jobs which barely paid the bills and one which made me miserable.

This changed with a phone call in April, asking me to interview for a cruise line position. I was offered (or given like a gift from god) the job, with eight days notice before flying to Rome.

It was a new start, with new people, with new experiences, new opportunities and new hopes.

It changed me for ever. Pulled from lost despair and thrust into the unknown. As with any new endeavor, I spent the night in Rome terrified that I had made the wrong choice. In eight days I packed up my life with just a hope.

I made a catastrophic mistake in the first few weeks aboard. I was griped by the fear I would be sent home, leaving great hopes in Europe and returning home fired and lost again.

Here I sit in the warm California fall sun. I have an amazing home. I have an amazing job which has transformed my soul. I have learned who my true friends are and I have there friendship. I have a family, all happy and in good health.

Ridiculously, I still miss some of the things I lost, my old job which I loved, the friends I had there, and their respect.

But missing things lost is normal. As awful as things have been, I would not change a thing. They brought me to where I am today, and I am vastly thankful for everything my life is today.

I hope the same for you.