Thankful for Things Big and Small

2020 has been a sucker punch to the nuts. I know, I know… not just for me. For the entire world.

Here’s my litany of 2020 challenges:

1. I co-own and run indie bookstores. Having been closed for nearly four months, and watching debt mount, every day feels like it will be the last day. It’s like living in a state of perpetual dread. It’s like Sisyphus.
2. I unwittingly — and very unintentionally — stepped into the middle of a REDACTED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT.
3. I published Hard Wired into a pandemic. Not only are people buying fewer books than they would in better economic times, I’ve been so overwhelmed by the day job (see #1 above), I haven’t had time to properly promote HW. (Until today, I hadn’t updated this site for six weeks.)  I’m sure my publisher is thrilled with that. Though really, they haven’t been able to do much for or with the book either.
4. And yes, masks, quarantines, social distancing, blah blah blah.

But you know what? It could be worse. I can always be worse. A lot worse.

My kids are healthy and happy.  I love my wife. I love my neighbors and my neighborhood. I still get to walk the dog every morning.

That last one may sound like a small thing, but it’s not. My day starts with 20 minutes of fresh air (when there aren’t wildfires filling the sky with haze and smoke — FUCK YOU 2020!), a happy three-year-old-but-I’m-still-a-puppy-and-will-chase-every-bird-I-see companion, and a chance to clear my head.

The daily walk is an important reminder of all that I do have, and of how incredibly lucky I really am.

So yeah, 2020 sucks, but I am thankful for all the good things in my life, big and small.