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November 23, 2004

On being thankful

Alesia, from pumpkin pie central...

Hi all. I've been MIA because first my daughter was miserably sick for AN ENTIRE WEEK, and then she gave it to me. As par for the course, it magnified in me, and for 9 days I've been down with a miserable case of the flu. Finally went to the doc Friday because it got worse and I evidently have all sorts of miserable 'itises' -- sinusitis, bronchitis, and flu. He gave me 5 different bottles of drugs, all of which have hideous potential side effects (being a former drug lawyer, I always read the fine print, which scares the hell out of a person).

I mean - do I want my congestion to subside badly enough to risk stomach bleeding???

Irritability? (ha! like I don't have that anyway, with a deadline looming and being this sick.)

Hair growing out of strange places??? (Ok I made that one up, but you never can tell.)

Anyway, in the midst of feeling sorry for myself and blowing my nose through my fifth box of Puffs, I looked at the calendar and started thinking of reasons to be thankful. . .

I’m thankful for the my wonderful husband, who believed in me and my writing career even when I wasn’t sure that I did. I’m thankful for my amazing children, who taught me all about unconditional love. (Trust me, if you can love somebody who is loud, messy, demanding, and sometimes smelly, it’s unconditional love.)

I’m thankful for my readers more than I can ever express. It still feels like a miracle to me each time a total stranger spends hard-earned money to buy one of my books. I’m thankful for the letters I get telling me I made someone laugh, or touched her heart, or helped her escape from her troubles for a few hours.

I’m thankful for Lani and Michelle, my wonderful friends and fellow writers who created a community and friendship with me. And I’m thankful for all of the new writers I’ve met on this crazy journey. We’re all nuts, but at least we’re nuts together! :)

Most of all, I’m thankful for having the chance to dream. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! May you have many, many reasons of your own to be thankful.

Hugs,

Alesia

Posted by Alesia at 2:55 PM | Comments (1)

Comments

Posted by: Whitney at November 29, 2004 7:39 PM