Ten Reasons…

… I’m thankful.

I was tagged by The Gregarious Loner a while back with this meme, and today seems like the proper day to list the things for which I am thankful. It’s good to reflect now and again on what is good about our lives, and I for one probably don’t do it often enough.

10. My health. I’m overweight and out of shape, and after losing 78 pounds by making better eating choices, fell off the wagon and gained 40 of it back. Still, I have cholesterol levels anyone would be happy with, a blood pressure I don’t deserve, and my immune system attacks squirrels in the back yard. And all it will take is losing those 40 pounds again, and I’ll be back to a resting heart rate of 44 and a BP of 100/70.  For that, I am thankful.

9. My career. So few can say that they have found their purpose on this Earth, and be lucky enough to fulfill it. Every day I climb into that rig, I’m doing just that.

8. Financial security. I’m not rich, and likely never will be, and if I missed a paycheck, I’d probably be eating ramen noodles and sleeping with the A/C off until I caught up. But I’m paid a living wage, and many paramedics have to work multiple jobs to earn even that. Were I more fiscally responsible, I’d be far more secure, and that is something I aim to improve. But if The Borg kicked me out of the hive tomorrow, I’d have a job the very next day. For that, I am very thankful.

7. Boiled crawfish. Truly, it is the food of the gods.

6. The Sportsman’s Paradise. Yes, this time of the year feels like a sauna in southwest Louisiana. Mostly Cajun calls it “eighty by eight,” when the temperature reaches 80 degrees and the relative humidity reaches 80% by 8:00 am.

And next month, it’ll be even worse.

Yet, with a short drive in my truck, I can catch crabs, shrimp, speckled trout or redfish in the Gulf  – even now, with the oil spill –  swim or jet ski in one of dozens of placid lakes and rivers, or take my daughter to feed marshmallows to a living dinosaur.

I can duck hunt the coastal marshes or the flooded pin oak flats of north Louisiana, or find whitetail and feral hogs within walking distance of any place I’ve ever lived. Had I need to rely on hunting and fishing to feed myself and my family, I could easily do so.

5. Beer. Enough said.

4. Friends. It may surprise many of you to know that I am a solitary person. I don’t have many friends, and I don’t socialize much. But I have a few friends, brothers from another mother like JB and TOTWTYTR and Mule Breath, that even though we be separated by thousands of miles, I can call on and know that they will be there.

I have other friends, some of them yet unmet, that I have met through this wonderful thing we call the internet. Some of them are gun bloggers, and some of them are med bloggers, and some of them just lurk and read. Yet still we share a common sensibility, and my life is richer for having known them.

I have an ex-wife who, despite all the hurt that has passed between us – both my fault and hers – is still one of my best friends, and a trusted partner in raising the child we made together. We grew apart, but we never stopped caring, and she knows that I have her back.

And she has mine. For that, I am grateful.

3. Cajun culture. Many people assume that since I live in south Louisiana that I am a Cajun. Actually, I’m a redneck, and there is a difference between the two: both of them grow up having sex with the livestock, but those Cajuns tend to get emotionally involved.

All kidding aside, I am lucky to live among a people with such a love of food and family, and for whom music is in their very bones. They are the warmest, most hardworking people you will ever meet. They don’t just enjoy life down here, they devour it, and greedily suck the marrow from its bones.

And did I mention the food?

2. My country. She is much less free than the United States of my father and grandfather, and for my daughter I fear she will be even less so. We elect leaders who are unworthy of her shining promise, and we often take her for granted. Yet despite all her flaws, she is still the greatest nation on the face of the Earth, and the beacon of freedom for people the world over.

I am southern by birth, Louisianian by heritage, and American by the grace of God.

And today, on her 234th birthday, she may be showing a few scars, but she’s still a pretty grand old girl.

1. My daughter. Many parents are rudely yanked into adulthood by the responsibility of raising the child they created. All too many dodge the responsibility entirely.The rest of us muddle through on mistakes and good intentions, and fervently pray that the mistakes we make aren’t big ones.

All my life I have wanted a child of my own, and almost eight years ago, God granted my wish with a perfectly imperfect little creature that has taught me more about resilience and courage than I could hope to learn in a lifetime otherwise.

Some of us have parenthood show us who we really are. I got a child to teach me who I could be.

And for that, I will be forever grateful.