Each year for my favorite holiday I reflect on those things for which I am most thankful. On my list I have always included my thanks for those things that I have such as a warm place to live, food on my table, a good job, other family members and friends, etc. I also take time to be thankful for my great health and the lack of major negative events in my life in the past year. In among all of those other things, I have always given thanks for my husband who is the most important person in my life. But, I suddenly noted that to just include him in a list of "stuff" and the lack of major crises in my life was not reflective at all of the greatest gift for which I am thankful in my life, not only on Thanksgiving Day but every day of the year.
I think many of you will understand as for you, your spouse, children and other family members most likely occupy the top of your list, too. For me who has no children and a wonderful sister who lives many miles away, my husband, Kirk, is the constant in my life who is always there for me and who is the one who shares all that is my life. And the fact that he does so with so much love and support and caring allows for me to have a most wonderful life and for that I am the most thankful on this holiday and every day of my life.
I suppose it may be hard for some to understand why he is so special to me if you don't know my whole story. Many years ago, we created a music CD together titled "Let Life Happen." Each song represents something about who we are and what we believe and this project produced something that can never be taken away from us no matter whatever else may come our way. To have something that is "us" like that is everything to me. But even more, I feel as though Kirk saved my life after the cancer as he gave me everything that I needed to recover physically and more importantly, to find a way to overcome those things in my past with which I had never dealt that I needed to face.
I guess the greatest gift that we have given to each other is that we believe in each other and trust each other implicitly. When I was diagnosed with cancer for the second time, it was Kirk who believed that I needed to write about what I was experiencing as a therapeutic outlet. We had already discussed about how we wanted to do something to help other people and maybe this just might be one of the ways in which we could do that. He made me a promise that if I would commit to doing the writing, he would find the vehicle for sharing what I wrote and thus, the Let Life Happen website was born. True to his word as always, Kirk built the original website and two years later, created a brand new one to mark my final doctor's appointment related to the cancer. Having the website together allows for us to continue to work on a project together that represents who and what we are, both as individuals and as a couple, and this is the single biggest thing for which I will always be grateful. There is nothing that has added more to my life than to be able to share a mutual goal with the most important person in my life.
So this year on Thanksgiving Day, I find that I am singularly thankful for having Kirk as my partner. I believe that together we can take on anything that comes our way and overcome anything if we do it together. I believe that I have truly been fortunate enough to find my "soulmate" and have a real understanding of what that word means. I believe that I have been blessed with the greatest blessing of all in the man that is my husband, my partner, my love. And I believe that if all of us are fortunate enough to have that one special person be it a partner, child, parent, etc. or many special people in our lives, we have everything that we need and we can do anything. And I am glad for Thanksgiving Day because that was my trigger to realize that I have it all and for that I am truly thankful.