Monday, January 10, 2011

It's a Wonderful Life

There has been much hard news this past month.

Family illness, debts, a dear one's suicide, and two kitties with different diseases making it seem they'd perish before the new year: all of this made me thankful when 2011 finally rang in. I've been feeling sorry for myself in some ways (not in others--I still live a luxurious life compared to most on this planet).
The Cone of Shame (on both kitties!)

Driving home from work tonight in the dark, I took a different route: through Old Town. Yesterday it snowed several inches, so the ground and the trees (and the cars) are all draped in winter's finery. It's 3ยบ F, and people are still shopping, going to the theaters and eating out.

Most of all, I see the lights. Leftover Christmas lights. They wrap each tree on the median with star-shine--even though Epiphany has passed! They light my way through all my mediocre cares to a place I call home: warm, food-filled, companions all around, with two living, breathing cats and a partner who loves me. I noticed again how beautiful is this town that I get to live in. Work in. Play in. Serve in.
picture this.... but with snow

I begin the 7th year of my time here in Fort Collins, CO. Until 2010, I never really knew what it might look like truly to call a place "home" (having moved, in almost as many years, from NJ to PA to CA to CT to CO). But this is it. This is what "home" looks like. At least for now. And I couldn't be more grateful.

Sometimes I get caught up in the challenges before me, and I forget for a moment that I have the most amazing life. I don't know what 2011 will bring for me, but I know I get to be here, among loving, beautiful people in a town that has been voted one of the best places to live. So, thanks be to the Divine for all that is, and all that will be.



Happy New Year.

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