Happy thanks

I wrote a thanksgiving post but upon further inspection realized that it was a bit too sappy and slightly maudlin, more appropriate for an obit, really.

Rest assured that it wished you and the rest of the world all the best. I will skip to the ending…

Thanks to old friends and lovers, the ones I've kept, the ones I've dropped, and even the ones that dropped me. You bastards know who you are. 

To all my doctors, nurses, teachers. To people who gave me a second and third chance, who filled my cup when it was empty, who picked me up on the side of the road when I was lost all alone out on the lone highways.

Thanks to those who called me on my bullshit, who let it pass by... who pretended that they had never heard the story before, to those that finished my sentences, accepted or disregarded my limitations, laughed at my  jokes, pulled my finger, regularly tuned in to my whining and rants, never commented on my paunch.

Thanks to my spiritual teachers, Kalu Rinpoche, Yenur, Lao Tzu, Ahura Mazda, Captain Kangaroo, Nasrullah, Basho, Jerry, the rummie in front of the Academy of Music playing harp, Rev Les Ego,  Burroughs, Jefferson, Franklin, Alexandra David Neel, Trungpa, Musashi, Fu Hsi, Jung, Daniel, the list is long indeed.

Thanks to the people in my community who offer service to those less fortunate, who care about leaving a legacy, who work tirelessly to help others. All the stuff I would be doing if I wasn't so self absorbed.

Thanks to both my family and my circle of friends, new and old, you know who you are, far and near, many going on a lifetime of friendship. Your existence and support is the fulcrum of my being. Thanks to the casual acquaintances too. If nothing else, you add color.

To my readers, god bless you. If you don't believe in god, substitute the appropriate entity of your choice or even chaos itself.

And my greatest thanks to my wife and best friend Leslie, bright and beautiful, who has always stood at my side, or back to back

with me,

lover, foil, nemesis, partner, confidante
fiercely defending

loving

forgiving

hating onions together

loving purple

rarely going to bed angry

without you life's journey would feel empty and near meaningless.

I feel blessed that I was able to find and recognize my soulmate

and honestly sorry for those of you who did not and had to go the adventure alone.
Or lost the ones they loved somewhere along the way. I got lucky.

Peace and love to all,

Robert

It could have been a total disaster, if not an international incident. No one had noticed the rye bread that John Alden handed the Powhaten chief that first thanksgiving was actually a little moldy. A major case of St. Anthony's holy fire soon contaged through the camp like a multicolored whirlwind. Thanks to the quick thinking of one Miles Standish, tragedy was narrowly averted. He looked deeply in to the third eye of the indigenous native and said, "It's cool man, just listen to the music play..."