Thanksgiving

Thursday is Thanksgiving here in the US and I'm thinking about the things I'm grateful for, like second chances. 

They say the only thing you regret is the things you don't do, especially if the decision not to do it is based on fear. In my case, I regret that I didn't move to Iceland when I was 30, just after my job at the Smithsonian was done. But I am grateful this week for the second chance at happiness I've been given, by God or fate or whatever, to have a full and meaningful life. I made things harder on myself by not moving to Iceland when I was 30, and am ashamed to say it was mostly because I had acquired a very negative view of Icelandic men as life companions. So I made the decision out of fear and negativity, and a lack of faith that there were good guys over the age of 30 available in the land of fire and ice. 

I am thankful this week to be able to let go of that regret, and to embrace that the single life I have now is good and important and meaningful. That I am doing what I was meant to do, what no one else could have done.

Still it has been hard, especially when I hear about a close colleague of mine, an English scholar with similar research interest, getting public recognition in Iceland. Makes me feel like I missed my calling somewhere along the way. 

But this week is Thanksgiving, and I will have my son and my mom with me all week. Tonight I am making us roasted lamb and then on Thursday, my sister, her daughter and her fiance are joining us for traditional turkey. 

So here's to embracing all parts of life, the complicated and the simple, the good and the bad, and to the rare moments when we see we can take all that we are and make something new. Cheers!

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