A Pause For Thanks

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

So much to give thanks for in this very difficult year that I can’t fully articulate it.

I’m thankful my issues proved not to need chemo-therapy.

I’m thankful my working on the house during recovery did not cause major problems.

I’m thankful older son has moved out and is pursuing his vocation.

I’m thankful it hurts a lot not to have him around, because if it didn’t, what would that mean for our family?

I’m thankful I have younger son for six months more, at least.  And I’m thankful he’s — against all expectations for someone in his percentile — gregarious and outgoing as well as a good student.

I’m grateful the cats are all still with us, despite their having told us two years ago that Miranda had six months at most.

I’m thankful I’m feeling better and that writing is coming back.  Not as fast as I wish it, but it’s coming back, as is my strength.  (Even if the stupid-tired still clobbers me out of nowhere after some effort.)

I’m thankful that the place we’re renting suits us.

I’m thankful we have houses to consider.

I’m thankful for this blog and the friends and fans I’ve found here. In a way all the regulars have become family.

I’m thankful for Baen who has been very understanding of the illness-and-move caused chaos and who, in this dog-eat-dog world has provided me a family of colleagues who are like brothers and sisters (squabbling sometimes, but brothers and sisters.)

I’m thankful for indie, which as I recover will allow me to publish those things that are just not Baen.  Yes, as the illness subsides and the Great Move of Fifteen is completed once we find a house and move into it, there will be orphan kittens and the rest of the vampire musketeers, as well as Darkship Revenge and the Dragon trilogy.

But most of all I’m thankful I have my husband, without whom none of this would matter.  I’m thankful he decided to marry the weird Portuguese chick who wanted to write sf, and I’m thankful our love has deepened through the last thirty years.

Yeah, it’s been a difficult year, in which strength and will power were demanded that I could hardly summon. But we’ve come through the challenges and, heaven willing, next year will be easy.

May the next year be easier for every one of the regulars on this blog, may you be blessed with love and health and something you enjoy doing, which provides your livelihood.

The times are dire and scary but we have each other and we have many reasons to be thankful for, most of us.  Good measure, pouring over, and given without our doing anything to deserve it.

Today, we go and eat turkey and enjoy our families and/or friends.

Tomorrow we resume the fight. And that too I’m grateful for. While we battle, we’re alive.

In the end, we win, they lose.  Be not afraid.

 

68 thoughts on “A Pause For Thanks”

  1. Amen.

    Note, Smart people will stay home tomorrow. We don’t want to lose anybody to Black Friday Madness. [Smile]

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    2. I worked retail two Christmas seasons in college in a bookstore. Every year since, I’ve had something to be thankful for.

      Happy Thanksgiving to all.

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  5. Right back at you oh you silly Portagee niece of my heart.
    One word of caution. I’ve met both your boys and before you know it some geeky girls are going to snag them both and start endowing you with grandbabies. Now ain’t that a scary thought.

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      1. “Grandchildren are parents’ revenge on their children”. [Very Big Evil Grin]

        On the other hand, when younger my nephews & nieces knew that when Grandma (my Mom) said something she meant it (while ignoring what their mother said). [Wink]

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      3. Grandkids are more fun than their parents. I am blessed by four Granddaughters. (Ahem sons we need to talk about this)

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      4. Oh just you wait! Grandkids are the best thing in the world. We have what are probably going to be our only two grandchildren. One of each. I love those kiddos to distraction. And you get to spoiled them thoroughly rotten and hand them back to mom and dad!!

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    1. And i am also thankful for this community of virtual friends … uhm, this virtual community of friends, who do not know where I live and can do not hunt me down and punish me for all the low jokes, jests, japes, wisecracks, buffoonery and gags I perpetrate, nor even the chestnuts I roast.

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        2. Keep in mind that the torches are just for show, the hay-rakes aren’t particularly dangerous but the pitchforks are the devil to play with.

          Fear the reapers.

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  7. I am especially thankful that Tofu turkey doesn’t appear in the Family meal plans.
    I am also thankful to Sarah for letting us share in her life and adventures and mis-adventures, and to all the Huns and Hoydens that make this such a delightful spot to escape from the progressive insanity back into a simple apolitical insanity :)

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  8. Happy Thanksgiving!

    For Black Friday, I plan to be down at the storage unit with my husband, deciding what we’re throwing out, filling boxes of paper to shred, and consolidating the remnant for moving. Anyone who suggest sales is going to get a plaintive “But we’re trying to cut down the amount of stuff! I don’ wanna pack more!”

    You know, at the end of the day, I’m breathing. (Oxygen is the most underrated delight in the world, unappreciated right until your regulator fails 25 feet down!) I have two legs, and they still work! (This was seriously in doubt, a mere decade ago.) Even better than legs, I have the world’s best husband! (A widely shared trophy, though I wouldn’t mind in the least were more women to demand their husband get it, too.)

    And we have readers who like Peter’s work enough to keep us in rent and food, paying us for a few hours of enjoyment. Readers are awesome!

    Long may we keep having so very many things over and above oxygen to be thankful for!

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    1. *raises hand* I also have the world’s best husband!

      (It’s a good trophy, and better the more of them are around.)

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  9. This year I give thanks for having had the opportunity to retire, for a tranquil home in which to enjoy my sunset years, for much good fiction, for some that was less good but at least kept me occupied for a few hours, for Sarah, for the gift of time itself, and for other blessings so numerous that they defy actual enumeration.

    Happy Thanksgiving to all. May God hold you ever in the palm of His hand.

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  10. We are thankful for our Sarah, who graciously allows us into this virtual house. (And remembers to tell Fluffy that we really are friends!)

    At the moment, I am grateful there is a wall between me and the wife’s pressure cooker…

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  11. God bless you and your family.

    God bless all of the posters here.

    God bless this great country, the United States of America. I love her. Have since I understood what being an American meant.

    And thank you, God. For everything. Even the bumps. My prayer is that in the coming year I have more faith in God and how He wants to have us grow into the creations that He made us to be.

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  12. Happy Thanksgiving, Sarah. I’m thankful that I discovered your books and your blog. You always lift my spirits.

    And for everyone else, don’t go out into the mad world of department stores this season. Look for those beautiful, unique handmade wonders to gift to others.

    Artisans, writers, bakers and others do appreciate it.

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    1. Never do I emerge from the house on Black Friday. Amazon is the way to go for me.

      BTW – I just saw the video last night of Bezo’s Blue Origins self-landing rocket.

      Guess I’d better clear a bit more of the flammables out of the back yard…

      (Yes, it was super cool. It was on the AccuWeather site, now I can’t find the link again, so sorry. They tested it on the 23rd.)

      Liked by 2 people

      1. I have done the Black Friday thing. It wasn’t my first choice, but I’ve done it. Fortunately, the hoards hit the local stores first before heading to the cities, so by timing it right you get there after they’ve left and as the clerks are “zoning” – and willing to share horror stories.

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  15. I am thankful a lot of that stuff is behind you, and that you have indeed survived the year. I may not participate in everything, but I do read, and it has been hard to read about your year.

    I am thankful that I succeeded last night (okay, at 4AM this morning) in getting Word to behave itself and let me have a beautiful nice clean pdf (of the beginning, end, and chapter one, but who’s counting) with EVERYTHING I wanted in it, and none of that stuff I didn’t, and so I’m exhausted, but in a PARTICULARLY grateful mood. I am thankful for technology, and how it lets me do the things I try to do. Eventually.

    And, as always, I am so very grateful to be an American, to have family in many other places, and to not be at war right this minute.

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    1. I try always to remember, and not throw something out the window, that I need to be grateful it isn’t lead type. And that I’ve never had to learn to read with everything backwards. I think I was around ten years old when my small town’s printer finally got a film offset press in. Fascinating to watch them, but not a job I ever wanted.

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  16. I’m thankful my issues proved not to need chemo-therapy.

    I am thankful with you for that.

    I am thankful that chemo-therapy exists for those of us who have needed it. I am thankful the many incredible compassionate gifted people I have met along the way who have entered the medical profession. I am thankful for The Spouse and The Daughter, my sister by acclimation, and the many others who prayed and encouraged me. I am thankful for the blessing of His near constant presence; for the overwhelming peace, mercy and grace He has poured out upon me.

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  17. I’m thankful for a visit with family, and that includes y’all loons lurking about this place.
    I’m thankful for the good health that seems to be returning to Milady Sarah.

    Happy Thanksgiving!

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  18. I should be grateful that characters and plots for two more Colplatschki books ambushed me an hour ago while I was out walking. At the moment? I’m not overwhelmed with feelings of joy and thanksgiving. *whimpers, looks at research requirement, whimpers more*

    I am grateful for the Huns and Hoydens and our gracious hostess, for people who buy my scribbles, for health that’s not as bad as it seems some days, for family that’s pretty close to happy and normal as long as you don’t open the upstairs door (yeah, that one), and that dinner is cooked and just needs to be heated. And that I have ONE more lecture to write and I’ll be done for the semester.

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    1. Those can be painful! I only had an idea for a short the other day, and was just about to dance with a cholla before I returned to RW.

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      1. Fortunately, I was on a long-straight run of sidewalk. It would have been hard to explain walking into THE tree on that block, though. (OK, the only tree on the block close enough to the sidewalk to smack without getting a trespassing citation first.)

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  19. I am thankful that I’ve been writing more than ever and that I got my first royalty check. I am also thankful for the chance to guest on this blog.

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  20. I’m thankful for the positive qualities I was born with, because they were gifts, not achievements. I’m thankful for the privileged heritage of faith and freedom that came to me through my ancestors. I’m thankful for the things I learned from my hardest times. I am thankful for the respite I am now enjoying from the adversities, trials, and burdens I had when I was younger. I’m thankful that I’m still alive and healthy enough to do a few things.

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  21. I’m thankful a nephew made it back safely from the sandbox. I’m thankful a health scare in late summer was just that: nothing more than a scare. I’m thankful my wife’s health – and mine – is improving. I’m thankful our kids are doing well in school, and our eldest has started down their career path with eyes wide open, and it seems to suit. them. Above all I’m thankful for Salvation.

    I only wish I was thankful more often.

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  22. Just stopped at a bookstore on the way home. Not too crowded, nice little coffee bar, clean restrooms.

    The wife decides she doesn’t want to use the restrooms there. She wants to drive in the pouring rain and use the restroom there.

    Pray for me.

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  23. I’m thankful that my nephew and niece were both recovered enough from their colds that they could come to Thanksgiving dinner at my folks’ place, and that I was able to talk writing with my middle brother, who’s also a writer. I’m feeling a lot more confident about my current work in progress, and I have a much better sense of the next several chapters.

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          1. The one and only time I encountered Deano, he was stone cold sober. And hence somewhat embarrassed when Mom kissed him. Of course, he was just starting dinner and his first glass of wine.

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    2. I’ve had pumpkin pie (with fake whipped cream for the second time in over a decade), dressing, and ground beef chili. :)

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    3. Not quite Orvan. My son and I had BBQ Rib Steaks for our Thanksgiving Dinner. I did not need all the leftovers from a turkey.

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      1. Those are not leftovers. Those are the foundation for the best turkey/ “chicken” stock known to man.

        And people wonder why I’m so happy to provide a turkey AND carve it at home before the party.

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      2. Without the turkey carcass, how do you make the juk? (The vast majority of my relatives, since I got married, are Chinese, with a few Japanese and a couple of Koreans. Juk is what we do with the leftover turkey/roast beef after Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year/Lunar New Year celebrations. Also know by some as congee or porridge.

        Yum.

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  25. I’m thankful that you all have so much to be thankful for!

    I’m thankful for having a steady job that should last for a long time for the first time in my life.

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  26. I’m thankful for a boss who seems to like me and at least one friend who puts up with my grumpy self.

    I’m very thankful for Amazon and the fact that I might be able to skip the retail job this time next year.

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  27. Like I am certain 99.999% of your readership agrees, we are thankful to have met you, Sarah. Whether in person, through this blog or elsewhere online, or through your sf, we say, “Well met.”

    Now just get well and stop making your family, the cats, and us “camp followers” nervous. ;-)

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