Let's Talk with Maggie Toussaint
Let’s Talk with Maggie Toussaint
November 25, 2021
Things I’m Thankful For
By Maggie Toussaint
Every year when Thanksgiving rolls around, I wish I’d done a “thankful” jar all year long, tucking little slips of paper inside when good news occurred.
So here’s my list from memory.
Vaccines. I am very thankful for the covid vaccines. They give me hope that we can one day get back to normal instead of feeling like each excursion is a mission to Death Row.
Curbside grocery pickup. This has been a boon for me during the pandemic. I thought I’d especially miss picking out the fruit and veggies from my order, but what I get this way isn’t bad.
Family. During mid-summer when viral infection rates were the lowest of the year, our kids and their families traveled to visit us, both coming from great distances away. We hadn’t been able to see them since Nov 2019, so this was a special treat.
Zoom. I must confess a love/hate relationship with video meetings. I’d never heard of Zoom before the pandemic and now it’s The Thing. Sometimes the audio gets messed up on this but for the most part, it seems to be part of our lives now.
More family. This fall brought several outdoor family gatherings, and that bit of normalcy brought smiles to everyone’s faces. We needed this. Oh, how we needed this.
No surgeries in 2021. After a 2020 chock full of surgeries for either my sister, husband or myself, we have had a reprieve in 2021. Our forays into the medical arena have all been in the nature of wellness checkups this year.
Killer Nashville. I went to an in-person mystery conference this summer. We wore masks. We social distanced. We survived. It was super.
Streamed church services. It nearly crushed my spirit when church got canceled due to the pandemic. We started 2021 online but by summer had transitioned to in-person services again. Then the Delta variant of the virus hit and we trimmed back to live streaming church again. We’ve just recently started up in-person worship again, thank goodness.
No hurricanes. Somehow, some way we escaped having hurricanes strike our area of the coast. In past years we’ve been visited by hurricanes and it is scary. All I had to do this year was check the expiration dates on my “hurricane food” and replace some of it.
Community of writers and readers. I am very thankful for all my writer friends as well as readers. It hasn’t been easy to keep writing during the pandemic, but it is always lovely to hear from writing friends and readers. Keep those r
eviews coming!
I’d love to hear what you’re thankful for in 2021. Comment for a chance to win a print (US mailing addy only) or ebook of SHRIMPLY DEAD. Winner will be announced on December 2.
Posted in Let's Talk, with Maggie Toussaint • Tags: BLB Discussion, contest, Let's Talk, Maggie Toussaint, Thanksgiving, Things I'm Thankful For | 29 Comments
Definitely thankful to be out and about more this year, even if it means still wearing a mask! Thankful my family and I are in good health, thankful for camping, gardening – thankful to wake up each day! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!
I enjoyed reading about the things you are thankful for, Kathy. Good health and hobbies are essential to my wellbeing too.
Happy Thanksgiving. I’m thankful that my family are safe and well and that we all live with fifteen minutes from each other. We’ll share a feast and toast to our good fortune.
It’s wonderful that you family is close geographically and personally. How nice to have a family get together and have everyone enjoy it. Happy Thanksgiving!
Always thankful for my amazing hubby whose always by my side with support, encouragement and mostly his love. Thankful that we are fully vaccinated and able to start to make plans once again to start marking off items on our bucket lists in the upcoming year. Thankful that hubby’s Mom who continues to have good health at 92 and for the chances to go visit her about every two months. Thankful that through the shortages, high prices and not being able to get out and about that we have always had food on the table, a comfortable home to live in and enough money to pay our bills. Thankful for our love of cooking/baking (hubby loves it as much as I do and he doesn’t mind the clean up) because when restaurants shut down eating at home wasn’t a sacrifice but something we love doing. Thankful for our furbaby who just turned 17 and is the joy of our life. Thankful for the medical professionals and having found those that will sit and listen to you to work out the best possible solution for me. Thankful for being directed to even more specialist who are working to help me live with my pain and working on maybe reducing some of it in the next couple months. It all boils down to the fact that I am thankful and blessed each and every day in so many ways.
2clowns at arkansas dot net
Isn’t it nice to focus on the positive? I love that you have a go-to person in your husband, and that you still have elders in you family above you in lineage. Longtime pets are such a blessing, and I love all the other things you are thankful for.
I am thankful for family and friends, and for my new grandnephew Hugo born this past April. He’s a real cutie. Hopefully I can make a visit to TX and OK this coming year to meet him and see the rest of the family. Happy Thanksgiving, Maggie and everyone!
Thanks, Diane, and Happy Thanksgiving to you as well. I hope you are able to travel to see that new baby next year. Little ones are so so precious.
I’m thankful for my cat and my family and friends. Thankful that everything had stayed pretty normal here- no closings or shortages or any of the stuff bigger cities are reporting. Also thankful we finally have carpet after a major water leak flooded the house!
I’m glad you were able to get that carpet replaced, Alicia. I agree that normalcy is an absolute treat. I’m thankful you love to come here and that you love books!
I’m thankful for a lot of things. I’m thankful for my cat, my parents, but I’m especially thankful for the fact that my Dad is out of the hospital and spending Thanksgiving with my family and I. You see, Dad’s been in and out of the hospital at least 4 different times after having, COVID, APHIB, Sepsis(Blood Poisoning), A Touch Of Pneumonia an other infections. So good to have him home. I’m also thankful for Jesus’ gift of eternal life and all my blessings.
Happy Thanksgiving
Crystal, I’m so glad your father is able to spend Thanksgiving with you. It sounds like he has been through some hard times with his health lately. It is a blessing to have that love in your life…and your kitty. I hope the rest of your weekend is just as nice as Thanksgiving.
I’m thankful that family and friends are vaccinated and that all are doing well.
How lovely, Mary. Nobody likes getting shots and all the hoopla about the vaccine made many people doubt the powers that be. I am so thankful for our medical community. Our doctors, nurses, and support staff are heroes for all that they have done to help us.
What a fantastic thankful list! I’m thankful for many of the same things and trying to find the opportunities and positive changes that have emerged out of this hellish pandemic, especially the self-reflection and reprioritization I and others are experiencing (nothing like a good existential crisis to prompt a little rethinking).
I hear you, Janet. Facing and enduring a crisis like the covid pandemic changes people. For me, I took a hard look at how I was/had been spending my time and decided I needed to regroup to survive in this brave new world. And I finally remembered my nearly lifelong mantra of “it’s the journey not the destination that matters.” Once I got in that mindset, I stopped worrying about the words I wasn’t writing and focused instead on being creative and guess what? Words began to flow. Life is good, especially when you focus on that statement.
I’m thankful that my family has remained healthy throughout the pandemic and that my youngest grandkids have now received their first Covid vaccine.
Those are indeed blessings, Lois.
I’m thankful for all of the contacts I’ve made through my writing endeavors that have helped me be a better writer. This Summer I found a wonderful editor and now I’m working with a former publisher to get my book formatted for KDP. Writing has been a solace to me though the pandemic. I’ve been able to escape to a COVID free world.
It sounds like your contacts have been invaluable in helping you along on the publishing journey, Darlene. That’s awesome. I appreciate what you said about writing helping you to escape to a COVID-free world. I feel that way about reading and writing.
Thank you so much for sharing. I am thankful for a marvelous husband who has become my full time caregiver. Through it all, he does not complain.
You got a good one, Debbie. Blessings to you and your husband.
I am thankful for so many, many things! I will just mention a couple of things. I am thankful for our small extended family and that we are able to get together safely in our “bubble”. I am also thankful for the fact that they are so many wonderful books to read, learn from, and enjoy.
Those are wonderful things to give thanks for, Nancy. I agree with you about books.
I am thankful for my family. It has been a really difficult year for me and it is their love and support that has helped me to get through it.
Family love and support is truly a blessing, Cherie. I’m sorry you’ve had a difficult year, and you are fortunate to have that deep kind of bedrock help. Here’s hoping 2022 will be Your Year.
I am grateful to be near family in our new location where we can get together every holiday and special occasion. And for friends like you.
Ah, that’s so sweet, Nancy. I’m thankful for friends like you too!
Congratulations to my winner Darlene Dziomba! She’s won a print (US mailing addy only) or ebook of my culinary cozy, SHRIMPLY DEAD! Thanks to everyone who shopped in to share their “giving thanks” thoughts. Everyone be sure and look for our Cozy Holidaze Book Bash happening on FB on DEC 9 from 8–9:45 pm. There are lots of books up for grabs!!! The site is https://facebook.com/NewReleaseParty