To those of you who celebrate it today: Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s almost de rigeur to talk about the things you are thankful for today, and I’m not knocking that. It’s a good thing. A very good thing.

For the past few years, I’ve tried to cultivate gratitude in an active, conscious ways. It’s helped me cope with the ups and downs of life in general and the life of a writer, specifically.

I frequently remind myself of all the huge blessings I have: a wonderful husband, a great family, some very good friends, a warm, water-proof house, and food on the table. They’re the biggies and I never want to forget just how rich all of that makes me.

For a special day of gratitude, I thought I’d consider some of the less obvious things for which I’m grateful. In no particular order:

My Kindle: I love that I can carry literally hundreds of books with me when I travel or just go to the dentist’s office. I still love paper books, too, but I find it increasingly hard to read them as my vision deteriorates. For me, the biggest virtue of the Kindle is that it turns every book into instant large print.

My Garden: I’m not a fabulous gardener by any measure, but I love watching things grow and I enjoy my flowers. There’s something so satisfying about digging in the dirt and producing beautiful results.

Chocolate Chip Cookies: Do I really need to explain?

Reto’s Kitchen – They’re a catering company right down the street from us. During the pandemic they began offering a twice-weekly meal you could order ahead and pick up from them. Sometimes the meals aren’t to my taste, but mostly they are – and they’re always delicious. I’m so happy they’ve continued to offer this service. We don’t get out as much as we used to, so it’s nice to have access to restaurant-quality food occasionally without having to get dressed up, etc.

The Greensboro Grasshoppers: They’re our local minor league baseball team, a class High-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. My husband and I both love baseball, and we can see professional (though not Major League caliber) games live at a fraction of the cost of going to an MLB game (and that’s not including transportation and hotel stays for the nearest one in Atlanta). It takes us five minutes to get home after the game is over.