To all my readers outside the U.S.: Happy Thursday!

My fellow Americans, if you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you’re having a happy one. The point of this holiday is supposed to be to remember the things in our lives for which we are thankful. For most of my life I have been all over that idea, because I’ve had a pretty good life. Even though ever since puberty, when I first realized that I was gay, I have lived under one existential threat or another, I still could see the many good things and good people in my life. The last four years have represented a far worse series of threats to the life and well-being of everyone who isn’t part of the 1% and/or white, cis, male, straight, conservative, and well-off enough to stockpile assault weapons.

And while the recent election is ousting the wingnut-in-chief, I think it’s a little early to celebrate. Because the angry white nationalists and their allies have been feeling emboldened for the last few years, and now many of them think they’ve been cheated. So the single worst overt threat to the future of the Republic may have been technically beaten, but the war goes on.

Knowing what is hanging over us makes it so easy to get on the anxiety treadmill and just keep running in place.

Which isn’t what today is supposed to be about. For our mental health, it isn’t what we can spend all of our time on.

So, here are things I’m thankful for:

• my smart, sweet, sexy, super capable, long-suffering husband
• cocktails (it’s 2020 everywhere, drink when you want!)
• sci fi books that tell of hopeful futures
• coffee
• people who help other people
• recipe blogs
• videos about haw to make cocktails
• people who make art, music, and other creative things
• the cute birds that visit my bird feeder every day
• people who take care of us when we’re sick
• music
• purple
• my eccentric, sometimes infuriating relatives who probably find me even more bewildering than I ever do them
• not having to spend any holidays with (especially) the most infuriating relatives this year
• audio and video conferencing services that let me spend time with friends despite quarantine
• podcasts
• gravy
• people who work retail
• music
• rain
• people who write fanfic
• science
• olives
• people who love
• my kind, clever, cheerful, hard-working husband (who definitely deserves to be on this list twice!)
• online friends
• cheese
• playlists
• pie
• people who vote
• radio and wireless technologies
• people who fill the world with joy
• kittens and puppies and tigers and otters
• teddy bears and mousies
• books
• people who review and recommend books
• stuffing
• have I mentioned my handsome, good-natured, patient, shrewd, funny husband (who definitely deserves to be on this list three times!)?
• friends who will group text with me while we’re all yelling at the same football game on the TV
• gin
• cherries
• virtual events
• the many almost magical computing devices that I can now wear on my wrist, carry in my pocket, and otherwise use to bring a wealth of information and possibilities that were barely imaginable when I was a kid
• all my wonderful friends—who are talented, kind, giving, and clearly the most patient people in the world, because they put up with me

Thank you, each and every one. Whether you’re celebrating Thanksgiving today or not, I hope you have a wonderful day full of blessings, because you deserve it.