Thanksgiving

I woke up grumpy yesterday morning. The night before I had spent 2 hours at parent meetings for my youngest son's high school swim team. The first hour was a boring presentation by the Athletic Department, an hour of my life I will never get back. The second hour was specifically for the Boys Swim & Dive Team and it laid out expectations for the kids and parents, the schedule, fundraising, etc. This is our first foray into high school sports and with our ongoing commitments to band boosters and, you know, employment, it seemed rather overwhelming. Even before the meeting I had had to make changes to my schedule and life - I have been teaching a Sanchin-Ryu karate class on Thursday nights for the last two years and pretty much expect to continue doing so for an indefinite period of time. But the swim meets are on almost every Thursday night starting in December and running through February. So I have already made arrangements for other people to take over my class. And the Swim & Dive Team has team meals together the day before the meets and after the meets and... well, you get the idea. Sean isn't the only one joining the swim team. Mom and Dad apparently join, too.

So I woke up grumpy and I was running over to MSU to pick up Ian and, well, you know, life. But before I left I took Frodo for a walk.

And I walked past the house where one of Sean's friends, Shane, used to live. Except Shane doesn't live there any more because he committed suicide last spring.

And I realized that Shane's parents would probably do almost anything in order to sit through parent meetings for Shane. To volunteer for fundraisers and timing, to bring casseroles or desserts to potluck dinners, to cheer on their son in something he was passionate about.

So I am thankful for all the inconveniences and commitments and demands of life. I am grateful that even when my writing job goes through downturns, I'm still working a job I love and still working. I'm grateful for my lively, brilliant, talented, challenging, wonderful sons, and for my brilliant, talented, challenging, loving, beautiful, capable, sexy wife. I am grateful for Frodo and for dogs in general. I am grateful for Sanchin-Ryu, which expanded my world and took me to unexpected places and became an odd and delightful family. I am grateful - very - that I am healthy. I am grateful for family and friends.

I am grateful.