In college, I read the journals of John Wesley (an interesting read) and every year on his birthday, he would write down his thoughts about his life.  He would analyze himself and look at the past year.  This year, my birthday happens to fall on Thanksgiving Day.  I wasn’t sure how thankful I was for that at first, but then I thought it made an excellent occasion to think back on the past year, and my life in general, and to be thankful.  As I get older, the number of my age seems less old to me than it did when I was a teenager, or even a twenty-something.  The reason is, I think, because even in this aging body, my mind is still the same.  I still have the same hopes and dreams, the same passions, the same fragility.  I just have more experience to go with it.

So as I look back on my life this year, I am thankful for my family: for my husband who has been so supportive of this new writing career I have launched, for my children who have seemed so proud of me.  I am thankful for extended family and friends who have come to my book signings and bought extras to give as gifts.  To my Inkwell partners, Joanne and Joshua, for willing to take this risk with me.  To my God, who is always with me, and has the ability to make dreams come true, even when the timing is different than you had hoped.  And I’m thankful for life in general, the gift that it is, that every day is, even when the days seem dark and it looks like the sun has decided to skip you.  Life is a gift, and we are often given as gifts to each other, to be the sun for someone when it’s hiding from them.

So Happy Thanksgiving, and I so appreciate all of you celebrating me today with pumpkin pie and turkey!  Thank you for being lights in the darkness!

Ashley