Thursdays are for Thanksgiving

Some time ago I started a post label of Thursdays are for Thanksgiving. As with most things in my life, I have a way of getting distracted from a good intention and it falls by the wayside. As this is the first Thursday of November and I'm in the middle of this 30 Day Writing Challenge, I thought it might be a good time to revive it and begin anew a reflection of things for which I am thankful.

I don't want my Thursday posts to be trivial, nor do I want them to be a long list of many things. There are many things that we take for granted and often go without saying -- even though we should probably mention them every now and then.

I'll begin this first Thursday of November with something that is simple and yet very significant to me.
This will be my first holiday season as a retired person!
I can't begin to express how blessed I feel to have been in a career that allows (or forces, depending on your attitude) me to retire at an age that is much younger than most. Though not wealthy by any means, we are in a safe place when in comes to finances. Even though Chris continues to work, we have more time to do things together and to take an occasional trip -- even if it's just a short weekend adventure.

I truly feel that I am in a good place -- financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally.
Financially -- I don't know if we ever have as much money or as many things as we want, but I have more than what I need.

Physically -- I still have areas to work on and a lifetime of poor habits to overcome, but I am probably in the best condition and health that I have been in for several decades.

Emotionally -- I'm not really certain of how to judge that, but I feel that I am pretty stable. I don't know if it's age, maturity or that my "give a rip" factor now dismisses most things that used to bother me, but I generally feel that I am on a pretty even keel.

Spiritually -- Yeah, that's good, too. Blessed, challenged, comfortable but not really content.

Mentally -- This one is kind of a big deal. Toward the end of my career, I was really beginning to worry about dealing with depression. Most days, I didn't even want to get out of bed, much less go to work. And there is no help for a depressed air traffic controller. You can't work if you've been diagnosed with depression and you can't work on the medication that treats it. You're just finished.
So you don't even talk about it. You just put on your big boy pants and deal with it.
The walks and getting into better physical condition helped a lot -- but still...
Coping with life is much better when you spend most of the day alone and with your own thoughts.
Who you spend time with, what you think about, what you talk about, what you read, where you go ... all of these things are better when you have more control.

Today is a rainy day and I'm doing laundry. Chris is running some errands and meeting a friend for lunch. I'll probably take a walk -- in the rain. Later, we'll go to an afternoon movie.
It's not a glamorous life, but it's a good life ...
...and it's my life.

John <><