Eleven-Twenty-Seven

My winter boots have holes in them, and I'm really wishing I'd already bought a new pair because I woke up to this today:

It's just a dusting, but snow in Georgia before Thanksgiving is a rare, rare thing. And I'm a sucker for snow. Logistically, I hate it. It's no fun taking care of a barn - or doing anything - with snow on the ground. But aesthetically, I adore it.

 

 

 

The wind has been wicked; it's blowing so hard, the snow stuck to the faces of the fence boards.

 

 

 

 

 

It's one of those things I feel thankful for - even as I curse it; I'm thankful for the beauty of snow, for watching it sift over pastures and collect on leadlines. It's a season of counting blessings and shoving aside the small worries to allow room for the bright spots in our lives - to give them a chance to shine unimpeded. I don't ever put much thought into Thanksgiving; all the cooking and cleaning and prepping gets in the way. So I should take a minute to be nothing besides thankful.

 

I'm thankful, most of all, for my family. Especially my immediate family - for the lifetime of love and support. For my dad - for understanding that animals would always be a part of the equation; for inspiring my childhood love of literature; for being sarcastic when he shouldn't. For my mom - for running a farm shoulder-to-shoulder with me for all these years and being my cheering section; for knowing I was always a tiny adult in a kid's body and allowing me to make painful decisions. For my brother - for being the person I can talk Shakespeare, and Austen, and Tolkien, and Martin, and Marvel, and philosophy, and history, and politics, and movies with. For the animals who've proved to me that hard work pays off. And for the chance to make a play for this insane dream of mine. I'm in that "gap" between dreaming and being realized by others, and it feels like a no man's land of doubt and worry, but having a chance to work through that, and hopefully, one day, get to the other side, is an opportunity I wasn't sure I'd ever have. Here's to more stories, more books, and writing something worthy of my imagination one of these days.

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of food and the people they love.