Counting My Blessings

In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday in the States, I’m taking a break before my final WorldCon CoNZealand write-up to give thanks for all my blessings.

20 Things I Am Grateful For In 2020

While 2020 had been a pretty rough year for most of us, I know that many of you have had it far rougher than I have. My heart goes out to all of you whose lives have been touched by the pandemic — with illness, lost jobs, isolation, election anxiety, or more. Meanwhile, my life changed far less than I imagined it would.

My days have been filled with my dayjob and my nights with my writing. Plus? A LOT of online conventions needing staff.

I’ve been going to the grocery store every month and a half, with the occasional farmers market trip, and not much else outside of my household. I’ve attended three very small, outside gatherings spread across five months. Then, two weeks ago, I topped off my groceries and gas tank, in preparation for the holiday and stayed completely alone until this afternoon.

And so it was that I found myself near in tears of relief as I drove down to visit my mother for Thanksgiving, counting my blessings.

So, in no particular order, here are some of my blessings:

1. I have a mother who’s been staying isolated and healthy
2. My mother is within driving distance
3. I have a job
4. I can work from home
5. I have a home that I can comfortably work from
6. I live in a quiet, safe neighborhood
7. My health
8. I have a family and friends who love and support me
9. I get the Thanksgiving and Year End holidays off from work
10. I’ve managed to keep my obligations light so that I can keep up with NaNoWriMo
11. I finally got to meet my newest puppy brother, who was born at the start of the pandemic! [french bulldog]
12. I have a writer father who understands my dayjob and writing complaints and triumphs
13. My blog and vlog are having their best year yet
14. Very few of my friends and family have been impacted directly by the pandemic or job losses *knocks on wood*
15. My supportive twin sister is my perfect alpha reader
16. High speed internet — making my job and virtual cons possible
17. The wonderful and supportive writing communities I’ve found – Write by The Rails and Spilled Ink, locally. My local NaNo writers. The AuthorTube tribe — especially Sarah, who lets me join her stream, and Sako, usually joins my weekly write-in stream, the PitchWars community, the Insecure Writer’s Group, the Sub-it-club and… Um. I’ll stop there or I could be here all night.
18. My wonderful critique partners and beta readers who have donated their time to help me improve. Especially Ashley Cass – The Book Babe!
19. Getting to eat food my mom cooked, tomorrow!
20. Did I mention getting to see my puppy brothers? Charlie, the maybe 9-month-old french bulldog, and Buttons, the 11-year-old papillion.