ERIN TIERNEY, EDITOR
As I count my blessings this Thanksgiving, I find myself reflecting a bit differently this go around.
I find myself thinking of time not as a linear construct, but instead as this intricate, interwoven assembly of moments.
I am sensing this more and more the longer I live away from my family in Pennsylvania, as I wade through, void of their physical presence in my daily life.
After two years away, the feeling of loneliness has gained a new depth for me, but I am thankful for those memories that pad my days as I muse the people I miss.
It’s the little things, really.
I think about my mom buttering toast for me in the morning when I was a child as I’m in the kitchen fixing myself breakfast before work. I hear my brother laughing at a TV show on my parents’ couch as I flip through the channels at night in my apartment. I feel myself leaning into that crevice of mom’s collarbone when I cry and am in a poor state of mind. I think about my dad bringing home a giant penguin stuffed animal for me when I was young, as I’m laid up on the couch from the flu.
Moments pass, but they don’t leave you.
It’s a bittersweet feeling – to remember and to miss – but I’m most thankful to have the memories I do, and to still have those people in my life, even if they’re not physically close right now.
All in all, I am thankful for all that bubbles to the surface in the midst of the passage of time.
With that, I am also thankful for those constants in my life. I am so thankful to be sharing my life with a strong, kind, ambitious man who takes care of me and helps me grow. I am thankful for the wonderful little life we’ve forged on a whim together in the Pacific Northwest, and to have him be the first and last thing I see each and every day.
I am thankful to have the opportunity to work for this community. I am thankful for every kind gesture, every smile and every kudo that comes through the door, and for a wonderful, talented staff.
It is truly rewarding to do what I do. The Community Blessings section was started last Thanksgiving and I am so pleased that it’s continued another year. This edition is one of my favorites because it demonstrates such community participation. It shows what moves you.
It’s a beautiful thing to preserve community gratitude, for these kinds of notions to be filed away on record for generations to find years later. It shows what kind of people you are.
I am proud to be a part of that, to be part of The Friendly City.
Happy Thanksgiving!
