2009: Giving Thanks at the End of a Tough Year

Greetings, fellow AC writers! Boy, has 2009 been one busy year for us, or what? Especially for me during the last few months; it is a wonder I even had time to write anything or even comment on any of the wonderful offerings that my talented fellow writers regularly post. As my friends already know, I have taken a bit of a beating during the past eleven months (yeah, didn't we all?), so I decided to squeeze a few minutes out of my chaotic Sunday evening ("Day of Rest", my arse!) and present my submission of thanks for 2009.

Ah, but I submit my offering with a little twist, though! Probably not the most original idea ever brought forth, but I have decided to to list some of the tough hits I have experienced this year and then follow each one with an associated blessing. The purpose of this exercise is to remind everyone (especially myself) that if we look beyond even the blackest times in our lives, we can find so many wonderful things for which to be thankful.

First, I feel mostly compelled to open with a word of thanks to God for blessing my wife and I beyond imagination this year. Now, so many nay-sayers will surely call me on this one, claiming if, there even IS a God, then why is the world such a shit-pit? To them I say, it is so because our God-given free will allows us to do whatever we want, no matter how evil or malicious (and believe me, I have questioned Him over this for decades!)

No, God might not see fit to force everyone to behave and treat each other with the respect with which they wish to be treated. However, he does give us those all-important intangible qualities (courage, strength, serenity, and wisdom, to name but a few) with which to cope with an evil world and all of the maladies and horror within.

We might be struggling financially, working longer hours for a dollar that buys less and less each day while my beautiful wife suffers excruciating pain daily, but I will not fall into the trap of blaming Him just because "life happens". After all, it is He who gives my wife and I the strength to carry on and beat the odds, even when the whole damn world seems to be betting against us!

So logically, my wonderful wife Luchrisa would be next on my List of Thanks. You see, it is through God that she came into my life, and it is through her that all of my other blessings have come. When we first met 18 years ago, I didn't know (or care) whether I would live or die, and my lifestyle truly reflected that mentality. She showed me the value of family, helped me to not only love kids, but understand why it is so important to not treat them like little inconveniences (much like I was treated growing up). It is because of her I got the family I never had, and a bunch of beautiful nieces and nephews who look up to me as the hero that I know I am not!

As many of you guys also know, I lost three awesome friends this year (rest in peace Allen Cain, Aaron Holmes, and my brother from another mother, Richard Haggard). Never before in my almost 42 years on earth have I lost anybody so close to me, especially three of them! Even one of my friends replied to my email about Aaron's death by saying "My God, Mike, I feel like all my friends are dying!". I can't help but share his sadness and feelings of helplessness as I watch my friend base shrink as I am lucky enough to survive another year.

And that is precisely why I am so damn thankful for all my Real World friends. I love you guys in my Internet World, too, but y'all have to admit, there is a difference when you look into someone's eyes and shake their hand when you first meet them. When you make music with them. When you unload an overseas container with your coworkers. When you hike up Mount LeConte together. Or when you sit beside each other on a river bank, fishing rods in hand. As my legion of Real World friends shrinks annually, I feel even more compelled to thank God for all the ones I have left (I would list them here, but truly, they are so numerous, it would be a waste of all our time).

On that note, many of you guys know that we lost one our beautiful cats, our beloved Chi-Chi. We were, of course, devastated; especially me, since I had to be the one to send her down the Green Mile. About three weeks later, however, we were blessed with our new baby kitty Sassy. As is the case with all our other critters, she was a rescue case, but came to us already spayed with all her shots! Best of all, she loves us and the kids as much as we love her!

During this time of skyrocketing unemployment and runaway inflation during this time insultingly called a 'jobless recovery', I am very thankful that my wife and I both have decent jobs, because many of our friends and neighbors do not. It is with our dwindling resources and weakening dollars that we try our best to help as many people as we can (which is what we believe God wants us to do since we're both lucky enough to still have jobs right now).

I am thankful for my little piece of private property here in the city, even if we struggle to keep up with the escalating property taxes and homeowner's insurance premiums. I am thankful for the opportunities and relative personal freedom it provides, such as my ability to grow a rather impressive garden on my little quarter acre just off of I-640. And mostly, I am thankful for all our military veterans, past, present, and future, who are the reason that I can have my own piece of private property (at least for now).

Even though I get so busy, I cannot even write half the time, I am very thankful for all of my responsibilities and opportunities that sometimes cause me to put my personal wants on the back burner. I am thankful for the band I am currently playing with. I am not so sure I really have a future with these guys, but because of this opportunity, I am playing live music again for the first time in five years, so even if it doesn't work out, I am very thankful for the time I did get to make music with them, and for getting to know about a half dozen great guys!

I just got a huge bomb dropped on me by my doctor when my triglycerides came back at 550 ("normal" is supposed to be under 200). In spite of the physical nature of my job and my exercise routine, it still doesn't help me, and now I have to be on even more medicine I can't afford, not to mention that I can no longer eat what I want anymore. Worst of all, this is genetic, and I might not be able to reverse this without being on medicine for the rest of my life!

But still, I am thankful I caught this before I went into full pancreatic failure, AND for the fact that I can still reverse it with the medicine. Also, I am very thankful that I, at age 41, five-foot-eight, and 235 pounds, can still do 8 pull-ups, 12 full body dips, and several one-armed push-ups IN SPITE OF a bad left shoulder and elbow! My belly is still smaller than my chest (and I can still see my feet AND my woo-hoo) and I have a full head of hair, which helps me look almost ten years younger than I am. AND I can still earn a living by doing the hard labor nobody else wants to!

Also, being one of the 'lucky' ones to miss the last couple rounds of layoffs at the plant has put me in the unpleasant position of working longer hours and wearing several different hats every time I punch the clock. But at least I still have a job, and even if that job is literally hanging by a thread (like so many jobs in America), I am thankful for a cool boss who treats me as an equal, on or off the clock, and some of the greatest coworkers I ever had the privilege of laboring with. I'd say this is one of the few places I have worked where I get treated with ANY respect at all from my higher-ups, and even though I am actually at the mercy of the "skyscraper people" down at corporate, I know that my bosses will go to the mat for me if the suits happen to smell me bleeding in the water!

And finally, I am very thankful I managed to steal a few precious seconds to write this list of things I am thankful for. And I am thankful for all the friends I made online; so many talented writers, musicians, and artists here on AC and elsewhere! I am thankful to all my fans for their devotion and especially their patience in waiting for me to read and comment on their material, and for waiting for me to actually write some of my own! Who knows how long it might be before I can come back again and interact with the some of the only people on the Internet worth knowing? But until then, I bid you all a fond farewell and a Happy Thanksgiving, one and all! Good night and God bless!