Gearing Up for Thanksgiving

Still unemployed? Still counting pennies and running low on blessings?

If you're searching for something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, how about this: READING.

Yes, just the fact that you're reading this blog is cause enough for celebration. All over the world, others aren't so fortunate.

In fact, according to Open Books, a literacy advocacy organization, some 20% of U.S. adults can't read a story to a child. That's 44 million Americans unable to nurture a love for books in their children through positive example.

Nina Patawaran is trying to make a difference in the number of readers in her homeland with the Philippines Dictionary Project. She's been sending children's dictionaries to the schools and been rewarded with news that the children's grades have risen 15% simply because of the new tool.

If you're looking for a good cause to donate to, $8.50 will get one of these special dictionaries to a child and open a brighter future for him or her. Or donate your time to a literacy project closer to home (wherever home is for you).

Reading is everything to me. I can hardly imagine my world without it. I may not have a job when Thanksgiving rolls in tomorrow, but I'll still be able to comprehend a menu, savor a poem, thrill to a travelogue, follow a recipe, relish a short story. Through reading I can access the worlds beyond my small home base. I am grateful for this. It is a blessing everyone deserves to have.

Catch a Curveball, Change Your Life

Curveballs have been on my mind lately. Not because it's baseball season, but because people so often engage curveballs to describe the unplanned in life. Lately it feels like nothing but curveballs have been lobbed at me.

Now I'm not a glass-half-full kind of gal. I don't believe I have to catch the curveball to have it change my life. It can do that just as well when it slips through my fingers or lands far from my grasp. I can look at it as a positive change or a negative cross to bear. Or I can just look at it.

What kind of curveballs have come my way? Oh, the usual stuff: medical emergencies, job loss, reversal of fortune. I won't bore you with the litany.

I've learned to keep my mouth shut when I'm tempted to ask "How much worse could it get?" I've learned to count my blessings.

This is not to say that I'm comfortable with curveballs. On the contrary, they knock me off-balance and make me fret.

On the other hand, I feel a new kind of serenity about my future. I don't say "This isn't fair!" or "Why me?" I neither dwell on my misfortunes nor fantasize about getting a big break. I'm working on living in the moment.

Qué será, será.