Meet Brownie (right) and Snap (left), two beautiful horses who live next door to Kirk's mom and whom we look forward to meeting again this weekend. As a sidenote, Brownie and Snap were self-named by me. I have no idea what their owners actually call them. But that is part of the fun, now, isn't it? :)

* This year I am thankful for my sweet, my love, with whom I never cease to feel wonder, whose thoughts and perceptions astound me every day, whose love buoys me up so I am cherished and held exactly where I am, who makes me laugh real hard, especially when I need to the most, and who fills my days with so much joy. I love you, sweet.

* This year I am thankful for my family, for renewed connections with sister and brother, for an ever-expansive and love-filled relationship with mom, for an engagement in the family, for a new and just-right life for older brother, sister-in-law, and new baby Ava, and for renewed hope and the gift of time and greater security for dad and stepmom.

* This year I am thankful for a season of expansiveness, exploration, creativity, expression, and heart.

* This year I am thankful for Sara and Kate and Hannah and Rebecca and Kirsten and Sarah and Laura and Erin and Charity and Lauren and Cyn and Amy and Heather and Danielle, and all the many more beautiful women who fill my life and heart and make my world go round.

* This year, too, I am thankful for the astounding depth of relationship that e-mail and long-distance late-night phone calls and these bloggy spaces bring into my life, maintaining old relationships and nurturing tender, young, new ones, which my heart craves because it is still learning how to live and thrive and be known in this new place (meaning, an entirely new state, across the country from my long-time, real-life community).

* This year I am thankful for Solomon and Diva, two cats I never knew I could love so much, who really are like funny little kids, who make us laugh with their antics and innocence, and who break our hearts with their vulnerability and the precious gift of caring for them each day.

* This year I am thankful for a little English cottage that is exactly what we need and makes us feel closer to our artistic and dream-filled hearts.

* This year I am thankful for student loans.

* This year I am thankful that Zoey, my spunky white Jetta, has made it one more year.

* This year I am thankful for the gift of words, for the ability to grow in my ability to express them, and for the space to do so faithfully, with ever-increasingness, on this blog space.

* This year I am thankful that God never lets me go and always bears me up and teaches me more and more of His love each day, who gently ushers me into the space He has for me to inhabit, which is always, always safe in the center of His will and always in the comfort and surety of His very own arms.