The rain comes down. It keeps coming. Rough weather and natural events going on all over: flooding and tornados in the United State’s southwest and an earthquake in Alaska and Canada’s Yukon. One year ago a giant wildfire spread in Alberta. Homes were destroyed by the flames.
I can’t see the colourful flowers and buds in my yard. I can’t see the photos of earth, seen through saturn’s rings.
Okay, just getting the bad stuff out of the way. Now the gratitude can begin.
I am thankful for a pitch acceptance to start off the week.
I almost hate to talk about it at all, for fear that it will always wind up as a dead end, but it wasn’t a bad way to kick off a week.
I am thankful for a morning visit with my writer friends.
We met on Facebook and decided to meet in person when we, the three of us, all realized we lived so close.
One is a mother of teenagers and has had several years in the world of freelance writing. The other is a young, first-time mom, who is a science writer. Then there’s me.
We make for an interesting mixture, but we all love writing.
I am thankful for a suggestion made.
The three of us try to offer ideas for publishing opportunities we think might fit for one of us. We help each other out. That is how new opportunities are found.
I am thankful for time with my brother.
He’s been so busy, finishing school and playing with his band, but we just got a chance to hang out. We made some food and talked about where he goes from here, now that he’s graduating, and where I go with things in my own life.
We talk about that a lot. We hope to add a plan of action to all that talk now.
We plan to get back to the podcast we started last year, before things got crazy busy, but we needed one time to discuss how we want to return to it.
I am thankful for the birds that make a nest in the roof of my porch.
They fly away when I come out onto it, to sit on my porch swing, squawking at me from the tree in the front yard. They are afraid of me and angry that I dare disturb them.
Maybe by the end of the season they will get to know me and we can share the space.
I do like that they feel secure to want to build their home there and I can hear them singing, just outside.
I am thankful I got to meet and the chance to know this writer.
The Most Delicious Reason to Go Night-Foraging in Croatia
We got to do a teamwork writing exercise in a town square in Mexico together and she showed up at the airport, so I wouldn’t be alone to start off my long journey home.
I am thankful a brown immigrant got to exercise his right of freedom of speech. (His words.)
I am thankful I survived the entire month of A to Z.
I decided to put together a summary of all 26 days.
I am thankful my father is safe in doing the job he was meant to do.
London Police investigate death of taxi driver in convenience store parking lot
You wouldn’t think this could happen. This did happen, in a town, not far from mine.
My father drives a wheelchair van. He helps people get where they need to go. Things can happen when you’re picking up random people.
I am thankful for a season finale.
I was pleasantly surprised to like Anne The Series. It became my reason for loving Sunday night. I really started to look forward to that day of the week.
This wasn’t my favourite episode, but it did end the season on a cliff hanger and I really hope there will be more episodes to come.
I will miss it while it is gone, but I can re-watch, as they are online and will be on Netflix next week.
End of one month and beginning of another. End is a dead one, but there lies newly discovered beauty.
Her Headache 
I was sad to read that you can’t see the beautiful Spring happening outside your door, but then I thought about how much of each season is connected to scent, flowers,birds, rain, grass clippings, then decaying leaves, and finally winter pine, fireplace smoke, and the crisp frosty smell of snow. Those are all lovely!
A pitch acceptance is a great way for a week to start off, hopeful! Fingers crossed! I like the writer friends you’ve joined up with too, that kind of support is invaluable, and it’s really nice to have friends that understand what you are trying to accomplish!
I’m really glad you got to spend time with your brother, everyone’s lives are so hectic and we never really find time for the people we care about most. It sounds like you had some great conversation and worked on ideas for the future too… Win-win!
Birds are so delightful, even out here in our dry landscape there are little birds that come to sing in the morning, and keep my cats entertained as they observe through the window.
I loved Hasan Minhaj’s courage and humor at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, what a wonderful speech!
You did awesome with your A to Z Challenge, I haven’t made it back to read the later on yet, but I will in time. I think we were all running out of steam by the end, but we did it!!
I understand your concerns for your father’s safety, and the safety of all public employees anymore, such a crazy world, nowhere and nothing is sacred or safe. An EMS responder was shot here in Texas yesterday, trying to help a vicitim. Horrible. This is where faith comes in, we live each day as it comes, and stay connected to those we love.
It always seems that our favorite TV series ends for the season. The seasons are so much shorter than they once were. I am impatient at waiting for them to resume, but at least you have something to look forward to!
And yes, a new month begins, full of fresh scents and wonderful possibilities. I wish you many reasons to smile from the heart in the weeks ahead! Thank you for joining us at TToT this week! XOXO
You are right. I like to think over all the wonderful scents I can detect and the sound of birds and rain and wind. I am blessed.
I’m listening to Hasan Minhaj and I love hearing his irreverent repartee. It feels good to laugh at an otherwise un-funny reality. Your lawn is a dark green, velvety carpet, the envy of your neighbors, I bet. Standing in it barefoot would probably send feelings of happiness right up through your feet. Congratulations on finishing the A-Z challenge. Like Josie, half way through I wonder why I am doing this and think I’m not going to participate the next year, but I have for the past three years. It’s so nice you have a support group of women to share writing and publishing tips with. Have a good week, Kerry, and write on!
Unfunny reality is right. I sometimes wonder in horror at what I am laughing at when my beloved late night hosts give their observations, but I need it. It gets me through the madness.
Ah yes…I sometimes feared walking bare foot in the grass, after being stung by a bee on the underside of my foot when I was a child. Now though, I do step out and sink down into cushy grass and languish in the sensation.
Thanks Val.
You’ve got some great thankfuls listed here. I love that you’re getting out so much regarding your writing – a retreat and in-person meet-ups and an accepted pitch! YAY! You rock! Also I haven’t heard of Anne the Series but need a new show. I’ll have to see if it’s on Hulu or similar and check it out. So glad there’s been more time to hang out with your brother, too. I wish my own brothers lived nearby, so I could see them more often.
It should be coming on Netflix any day now. So many different streaming services these days. Handmaid’s Tale is another good one, but so creepy. Anne is a little less so, quaint but dramatic. Check it out if you have a chance.
Thank you for sharing the White House Correspondents’ dinner speech. I’d missed watching that. I’m glad he was chosen to be the speaker.
I can understand how you might worry about your father in his job, especially when you hear of a crime committed against someone with a similar occupation.
Time to hang out with your brother is a great thankful. Strengthening family relationships are so important in this world.
I am lucky and grateful to have my brother and my father and the rest of my family. Thanks Pat.
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