Giving Thanks

The sun shines brightly after a couple of grayish days. We did not get much rain but every few drops helps. And that being said, I realize just how much I have to be thankful for. I've been blessed with a truly amazing life--detours, bumpy trails and all! Looking back, I can see how various experiences and trials strengthened and refined me to who I am today and that perhaps it is my duty and destiny now to pass this along in my writing and share odd bits and pieces that few will now ever have a chance for. Even when I was growing up, those in cities etc. did not get those chances. It has been a marvelous journey!

Of course the biggest blessing any of us can have is friends and family. The people that hold key places in our lives ad hearts are treasures beyond price. I just got home from a week in Arizona seeing friends and family from my long sojourn in Cochise County and that was a great joy. I lived there longer than any place in the rest of my life and it is still a place that holds a part of me. However, you cannot go home again--not ever. Things and places change; people leave and memory adds a luster and gilding that reality does not reflect. So there is a trace of sadness but also joy in a return. Still, it was especially good to come home! And yes, Alamogordo and this homely little house and its yard, gradually shifting to become 'ours' by things we do, is truly home now. Six bright eyes, three waggly tails and twelve feet of dogs cavorted and barked and jumped up on me--lovely! Belle's shadow of a shadow lingered briefly, even though she had been with me in spirit for the drive as she was in reality many, many times in the past. It's all good.

I even added a new friend to the bunch. After connecting through one of those normally worthless sites and corresponding for a bit we decided to meet--he coming down from Phoenix where he lives and me up from Sierra Vista to Tucson. Joe and I have much in common, the nerdy kids with strict parents and not much money to throw around who had to grow up and make our own different lives to find who we were. He always loved the cowboy and old west stuff and I grew up on the trailing edge of the real old west so there was lots to talk about. It was a funny 'first date' which is a silly term for finding an old friend with a new face. But there will be more shared times. At this age, friends are the best one can ask for and those with much in common a rare surprise. I like to meet people who are not strangers from the beginning as that confirms my belief that we have lived and bonded before. Love in all its forms and hues is still The One True Thing!!!

This picture is from those early days, about 1960 or so! The little mule was named Beano--since he was marked in spots like a pinto bean. That shot actually appeared in an ad in Western Horseman mag when we were selling saddle mules for trail riders.

Another special friend sent me a text this morning--I have to agree--like him I have "bunches to be thankful for." No, you cannot go home again but you can carry home with you in your heart and those invisible silver chains that join hearts and kindred spirits across miles and even millenia. To all those special folk--and they know who they are!!--Brightest Blessings today and always to you and yes, for each and every one of you, today I give soul-deep thanks. You are my most special and sacred blessings! May we always be together at least in spirit.

And this is me at about seventeen holding the brother, Alex, who left us far too soon. Glad you are in a better place, kid, but I do miss you! But we'll meet again. Take care of some of those dogs, horses and mules for me now, okay? No work, just a pat or a scratch since they are in Fiddler's Green by the Rainbow Bridge...plenty of grass and room to romp.