Family, friends and the roads that lead you to where you are

If everyone hasn't figured it out by now, I'm a true Eagles fan. I grew up listening to their music and was usually standing in line to buy every new album. My sister and I can sing every song as we listen along. We quote the lyrics everyday. It seems their songs can be applied to so much about the day-to-day happenings in life.

This morning I was listening to Don Henley's "My Thanksgiving" song on the "Inside Job" CD.

I have a lot to be thankful for.

My life has been a series of roads that twist and turn, but somehow lead me in the right direction. Making decisions, mostly on my own as a single woman, isn't always easy. Some have been right, others, well let's just say I learned from the wrong ones and hopefully will continue to remember not to make that choice again.

I've added new friends to my life. For years my circle of friends remained unchanged (I traveled for a living and creating new friendship takes time) and I had little time to cultivate new relationships without alienating friends I have grown to adore.

Each new friend has brought life, excitement and challenges.

One is in the Galapagos Island's. We Email each other frequently. I love to hear about his adventures, and I am privileged to create stories about his work and put it in the paper.

A group of peers with Freedom Newspapers have become a source of inspiration and fun. I join them for pool when I can, even joined a league (don't know what that was about, I can't shoot pool, my faculties must have been impaired when I agreed). It's been quite amusing really; it's good when you can laugh at yourself. I do that a lot when I have pool stick in hand and miss so many shots.

Then there is Carmen and Marie Luisi. I love them. We meet once a week for dinner, always at their home. Marie doesn't like people in her kitchen, even when I ask if she needs help, which I do every time, she says no. So I stand at the doorway, wine in hand, until she tells me to join the others. The others, they change from week-to-week, gather on the patio. We share stories, antidotes and food. The music is always good, but the familiarity of this family is better.

With family, friends and the changes that lead me down new roads, I am blessed.

The world may be fragmented, as the song implies, but it is the fragments of time that make life worth the journey.

So here's to "Everyone that helped me start and for everything that broke my heart, for every breath, for every day of living, this is my thanksgiving."