Thanksgiving.

This morning I woke up and Reuben was curled up in the blankets beside me.  It was at this moment, exactly as I opened my eyes, that I realized how immeasurably grateful I am.  I am thankful for my peaceful mornings and the day the lies ahead and for all the days behind. As Murakami said: "it's as though all these days were ingeniously programmed for the very purpose of bringing me here, where I am today."  I am thankful for all the steps that have brought me to this place, for all the people who have entered my life, for the courage that I am learning, and for all the love that I have found while flying about in this world.

I never want to take anything for granted.

I am decidedly lucky.

rocket science.

Strange is our situation here upon earth.  Each of us comes for a short visit not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.  From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of each other, above all, for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy.  Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of others, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have recieved and am still receiving.

-Albert Einstein