I really should have done this before but here is a list of what I am thankful for:

I am thankful that I have had a mostly good semester with joints. Amazingly enough it was only bad at the beginning of the semester when my knee hated me for two weeks. Otherwise the pain has been very minimal besides things that go away rather quickly.

I am thankful that I have had a mostly positive attitude this semester. Even though I may be apathetic and have my extremely emotional moments (thank you PMS) I have stayed a level calm and happy that I haven't experienced for a long time. In my memory this semester is mostly one of thought rather than emotion and despair. If I do despair it is not because of the happenings around me but because I have hard intellectual choices to face and make.

I thankful for my family and that things are looking up for them, such as my brother Chris getting his job back that he loves and finding a girlfriend that he can have fun and cook with. I'm thankful that Nic dealt with some redneck B.S. with a level head and that even though his girlfriend hurt him badly (to the point that as his sister I can never forget) that they're alright now. I'm thankful for the steadiness that my siblings have mostly found, that they're all growing up and for the most part growing happy.

I am thankful for my parents and the love that they have together and how they support one another and the family. They are our rocks and our haven and go above and beyond but not too far to help us.

I'm thankful that my mom found her friend Cookie to fill a place that I think she needed, to find the caring and humor in another person. I'm thankful that she can hang out with and enjoy her friend. I think she's found the kind of mother/friend. Friendship runs deeper than blood. I'm thankful that my mom is going back to what she loves and is good at: playing with antiques and furniture.

I'm thankful for forgiveness, that the heart can be free to be and that memory fades to hold the good and the bad and judge one to be no better than the other. They just are.

I'm thankful for the evolution of my definition of 'love'. I'm glad that it is a changing thing because to have it be narrow does not do the experience of it justice. I won't take love back, I won't say it was dishonest to say I love/d or regret it. "Love is you. Love is me. Love is knowing we can be," ~John Lennon

I am thankful that my friend Guy is okay, that she was able to find solace when she visited but that she also given herself the time to think and to heal from her experience this summer.

I'm thankful I cut my hair off. Really, I am. It is as though it was a symbol, letting go of the unnecessary, not letting it weight me down or drag me around, moving on from the innocence and dreams it wove into itself. Cutting it let the "real me" show in my face. It was time.

I am thankful for the earth, for time, for changing light, for social constructions, for physical constructions, for history, for the present, for life, for friendship, for laughter, orgasms of all kinds, language, music, hands.

So I'll leave it here and get back to work.
Peace.
~Lo