I am thankful ...

Baron will laugh, because as he said earlier today, in all the time he's known me, I don't think I've ever had more things go wrong than I've had go wrong today.  Chalk it up to going public with the challenge to be thankful ... ~grins~

In spite of a 24-hour period that is fit for a soap opera, I've had a smile on my face throughout most of it, and have had the chance to say personal thank you's to a number of people in my life.

There are a few I want to thank here, not because they are more important than the rest, but because they are very present in both my daily first and second lives at the moment, and remind me that I truly do have an awful lot to be grateful for.

To Riversong Garden: you inspire me!  I still see the quiet little bundle of miracles I met a few years ago, but the side of you I've come to know this past while is quite incredible.  You are a confidant, fearless leader with so much integrity and love.  I continue to watch you move mountains that I never had the courage to tackle myself, and I'm wildly proud of you, and so privileged to be influenced by you in my daily life.  I've never known a person more surrounded by miracles, and more responsible for their presence in the rest of our lives.  You amaze me more every single day.

To Zeke Poutine, my Fairygodmother-in-Garters:  you are one complicated, cigar-smokin', chocolate-luvin' biawtch!  And I say that in the most loving and respectful way ~grins~  You've got more layers than an onion, girl.  I do not know a single person on the face of this earth that pours more of herself into her community without asking for a single thing back, and yet so unapologetically sucks the marrow out of life.  I fell in love with your quick wit and big old brain at omidyar.net, but came to know you as a much more complicated, watermelon-cannon-toting kinda chick in gold lamé pumps once we began to jointly terrorize Second Life.  If there are two people from my first life that I most want to connect with outside of the Second to continue to scandalize the continent (in a "better world" kinda way of course ~winks~) it's you and Riv.

To Pam Omidyar: many of us could write a book about the ways that you move us.  The example you set from the moment you opened your digital doors to us, rolling up your sleeves and getting dirty in the trenches right beside us, was not only surprising, it was a lesson to keep close in our hearts.  I love you because you make your own damned chicken pot pie, love your kids fiercely, go surfing in the waves in first life and come back to play with poseballs in the second.  I love you because you take on politicians and everyday people alike.  I love you because my father taught me why being enzymes was important, and you continue to echo that call of your own.  I love you because the very first thing I read when I landed on your doorstep was (and I'm paraphrasing) that what was happening in Darfur was bullshit and you weren't going to take it anymore.  If I ever decide to grow up (and that's a big if there) I want to be just like you.

To my partner in business and everything that matters, Baron Grayson: there's not enough room in this blog ~winks~.   You're a man of few words and I know that when you say them you mean them.  My life is happier, fuller, crazier, more passionate and so much better with you in it.  I will never stop be grateful for the Marmite, the Phantom, ice skating, whirlpools, mountaintops, pirate ships, the cello, Apophyllite, adventures in chocolate, holodecks, birthday concerts, fish that come to life, junk cameras, the breakfast table, Roan Inish, Margaritaville, ghosts, pennies from heaven and a hundred other signs, miracles in a chapel, Rome and the power of "ugh ugh".  Here's to magic and adventure, to laughing until our faces stay that way, and to many more years of serendipity, baby!  Never in Darkness.

For you all and for so many more people that enrich my life, I remain thankful every single day.