Shawn L. Bird

On the heels of my gratefulness to all of you who visit www.shawnbird.com, leave me comments, and even those who write me to tell me I’ve left them too long without a post, I’ve decided to make this whole week about gratefulness.

It isn’t hard to be grateful, since I have been given a really wonderful life.  I have a husband who is a truly amazing and brilliant man (this is unanimous, ask everyone who works with him), I have very independent kids, I have adorable canine companions, who pay back their hefty vet bills with lots of affection, and I have a very rewarding job.  I don’t take any of it for granted.  I have friends who are divorced or widowed, estranged from their children, or emeshed with them, who have lost their pets, and who are out of work.  I am thankful for the good decisions and the good luck that combined to make my life.

Good decisions?  Well, I met my husband at a college, not a bar.  I think that improved our chances of avoiding a lot of agony that comes with addiction issues that have hurt other friends.   We very conscientiously trained our kids to make their own decisions and let them make their own mistakes and get on with it.  We don’t ever expect to see them moving back in with us because they can’t make a go of it in the real world.  We went to university and got education that gave us practical career skills.  Although we didn’t imagine our careers would go as they did,  our training has provided us with a good life in a beautiful place.   

Although we improved the odds with some good decisions, in the end there is a lot of luck involved in any happiness.  A major illness.  An accident.  Any little thing could have crashed through this  very fragile balance, and made us widowed, unemployed, and suffering. 

I’m thankful for my good fortune.  May you be as blessed.