Turkey Day Thoughts

While it is still Thanksgiving weekend, I want to remember to quickly get down some thoughts while they are fresh in my mind.  So much has been happening in such a short amount of time that I am not getting to all of the posts that I have floating along in my head.

• I am thankful for my new job and I am loving it!  Even with not being a morning person, I find myself happy and looking forward to the day when I get up around 5:15 am.  My spirits are usually high as I jam along with my early commute watching the sun start to come up.
• I am thankful for family and friends who love me.  Emails, texts and phone calls carry with me as I often wonder how everyone is doing.  My thoughts and prayers are with you all for health, peace and happiness.
• I am thankful for the new friends that I am making in Orlando.  I am starting to make connections here and it is helping me to settle into my new home.  Just want to keep going with the exploring and adventures that come my way.
• I am thankful for this new chapter in my life.  Moving to Orlando has given me a fresh start and a new perspective.  I feel more open and free than I have in a long time.  I am hopeful for what is on the horizon as I try to remember to take it one day at a time and live in the present.
• I am thankful for healing space.  It takes a lot of strength to let go and I imagine myself more and more on the side of freedom.  My past will always be part of who I am, but there is more focus on the present in who I am now.
• I am thankful for my family in Florida and having the opportunity to spend my first Thanksgiving in Orlando with them.  Of course I missed my parents, brother, sister and cousins this year.  But this holiday was I think the first that my heart did not hurt for a longing of a life I so desire to have.  I needed that.  Even with other holidays being better since my divorce, there has always been that little stab of emotional pain that crept into my heart.  A friend of mine suggested that I spend a holiday doing something totally different.  Part of me wished I took her up on that offer a few years ago, but I think I got to experience some of that relief this holiday.  There are times I feel sad with lost dreams, not being able to provide my parents with grandchildren, and a longing to share a life with a love.  Thank you to my cousins for being so welcoming.  It was a lovely day.  And it was funny because my cousin's mother-in-law makes homemade stuffing very similar to my mom's.  So in some ways, my Cleveland Thanksgiving was not too far off from the Thanksgiving table in Florida.  My mom's stuffing is better.  But, this was a good close second.