Conference turris::womannotes-v3

    Other than all the usual family, friends, home, etc., I am grateful
    for all the lessons I've learned the first time around.  I'm grateful
    for the pain of life, so I may learn to more fully appreciate the
    joys in things great and small.  I'm grateful that I finally know
    who I am and can accept me as I am.  I am grateful that I know how
    to be true to myself whether I choose to do so or not.  I am also
    grateful to be getting older so that I can gain more perspective
    on life's twists and turns. 
    
    I am happy to give thanks for all of you, too!  Happiest Thanksgiving,
    Barb

    Alison,
    
    I'm new to this file, but I would like to add my thanks-giving thoughts
    to yours.  
    
    I'm grateful for a loving husband and a few devoted friends who have
    given me more than I ever realized.  My family is small, and I have no
    children, so my husband and friends are my life.  Thank you God for
    bringing such people into my experience.  
    
    I'm grateful I am able to work for a progressive corporation.  Yes, I
    know there are problems, but for the first time in over 20 years of
    working, I'm proud of the job I do and the company I work for.  I'm
    blessed to have a fantastic boss.  The people I support are cooperative
    and appreciative, and I'm glad to come to work each day.  For all these
    things I am truly grateful.  
    
    Thanks again Alison for giving me a chance to express my gratitude.  
    
    Mary Alyce

    I am thankful that I have good health, that none of my
    bodily complaints are serious.
    
    I am glad to learn that I have the strength to cope with
    the current crises in my life and in my job without 
    completely losing my ability to enjoy the good times.
    I have learned to find a calm center that is not quite
    touched by the hassle, anger, frustration, and overwork.
    
    I have good friends who reach out to help.  I have learned 
    to be able to ask for help - not easily, not as soon as I 
    might, but before I crack.  I am feeling loved more often now
    than at some superficially happier times.
    
    I am very thankful that my favorite cat, Princess Tiye
    (don't tell the other cats I said so) was not having a 
    heart attack this morning when I rushed her to the animal 
    hospital.  She was having difficulty breathing, very 
    irregular heart and other symptoms of feline heart 
    disease.  I just received the word that it was something 
    she ate, probably turnip greens or rhubarb, which caused 
    chemical burns in her throat and the other problems.  This 
    morning the veterinarian warned me that cats do not usually 
    survive heart attacks.
    
    Tiye will recover; I will survive and continue to find the
    bright spots between the clouds.
    
    Pat

    I think the thing I am most thankful for is that my oldest daughter is
    alive. 
    
    I'm thankful that I have all three girls (despite what I tell them at
    times :-)...)

    I'm thankful for my religion and the strength that it gives me, and the
    church family that I have.

    I'm thankful for my job, and that I work for a company that I like.

    I'm thankful for friends that in the last several years have stood by
    me in some very stressful times that I have had to go through.
    

    Happy thanksgiving everyone.
    (note the time)
    
    Kate

    Well I have all 5 kids under one roof for the first time since
    last May!
    
    Even with the resutling confusion, teasing etc, that is definitely
    something to be very thankful for!
    
    Bonnie
    
    

    Re .7 -- I happily empathize, Bonnie!  Yesterday, on a crystalline fall
    morning, we took the Water Shuttle across beautiful Boston Harbor to
    Logan and picked up our older daughter who flew in from SF for
    Thanksgiving, and then picked up our younger daughter on the way home. 
    With both of their boyfriends in tow, we made a pretty happy hungry
    noisy crew as we all got back to our recently too-quiet house.  We're
    enjoying the tumult once again, too...
    
    It's great for Debby and me to walk past their normally-empty bedrooms
    and know they're sleeping back there...  and to open the fridge and get
    out all the favorite foods she and I have been whomping up for the past
    few weeks...  and to start "shtupping" them into our "baby-birds'"
    mouths again :-) :-) ...
    
    Thanks are being given around here for health, love, and family...
    
    The same to all of you --
    
    Dan

    Thanks to the people who make me feel loved...
    
    My parents, my relatives, and my friends...including the ones I
    haven't met yet!
    
    Thanks be to Whoever that I am healthy, happy, loved, loving
    and not in need.
    
    (And thanks to DEC for two days off that I *really* needed!)
    
    Peace,
    Diana

    Dan
    
    we just had a delightful session in the kitchen while having a late
    lunch..
    
    Peter and Judi and Michael starting bringing up past grievances and
    teasing each other about stuff they had done to each other as kids..
    
    it got really funny, and Peter's guest from Brown was having hysterics.
    (She wants to put some of the dialogue into a play!)
    
    It is great to have them home, but somewhat tiring on mom.
    
    Peter and Stevie are in Peter's old room, Katherine is sleeping in 
    Judi's room and Michael has a matress on the living room floor.
    
    How I love the bunch of them!
    
    
    and we have made three trips to the store already to day and they
    are still complaining that there isn't enough food!
    
    Bonnie

    
    thanks that, for the most part, my family and friends, whom i love
    very much, are safe and sound. especially my brother who is still
    in germany, not in saudi arabia.
    

    I'm thankful for my parents who've shown me unconditional love
    throughout the years, and taught me how to love unconditionally.  I'm
    thankful for my close friends, whom are refered to more as family than
    as friends.  I'm mostly thankful for the environmentalists that are
    giving their time, engery, and dollars to preserving our earth and all
    the wildlife that inhabits it.  Hopefully with my contributions to the
    cause, the most important part of my life, my 19 month old son Danny,
    will be able to leave this earth just as he came into it;  healthly (by
    healthy I mean dying of old age), happy and knowing that future 
    generations of his will be able to enjoy the beauty he too has left 
    behind.