New Year and a time to give thanks

The start of a new year is a time for most of us to be reflective...take stock of our lives, give thanks and look forward to our lives unfolding for hopefully another year. And unfortunately, there is the other side of the equation that balances out the happy part. Loss.

And today, we lost a beloved member of our four legged family, T2, our rescue African Spur Thighed tortoise. I will save specifics for another post but T2 succumbed to pneumonia.

I know grieving the loss of a reptile becomes an easy target to mock ("It's a frickin' tortoise for Christ's sake!"), but everyone defines family differently. If my friend loves her family of Koi fish and grieves over the loss of one of them, who am I to apply my definition of family to theirs? Grief is grief, loss is loss. And of course, loss helps refocus your attention to the things that you take for granted. Loss gives meaning to what you have.

So, today, I am thankful that I and the rest of my family are healthy. I am thankful that both my husband and I have jobs and a home that isn't being foreclosed on. And of course, we are happy that we did have T2 in our lives for a half decade or so.

I leave you with one final thought. I read today that one of Katie Courics regrets was not telling her husband that she loved him twenty times a day.

So don't wait to lose someone or something to tell them what they mean to you. Be thankful for everything you have in your life and keep wagging baby, keep wagging!