Ten Reasons to Be Thankful

According to Robert A. Emmons' THANKS!: HOW THE NEW SCIENCE OF GRATITUDE CAN MAKE YOU HAPPIER, grateful people show measurably more contentment than whiners. Well, duh, you may think, but, like most obvious good advice, it's not something that shapes my life. Witness how I have not done an aerobic workout in about eighteen months now.

So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving I've come up with the following list:

1. Family
2. Friends
3. Health
4. Food
5. Clothing
6. Shelter

Sheesh! Once you list the "freebies," there are really only four more to come up with. Piece of cake.

7. "Sheesh" is on the list of allowed words for writing a Steeple Hill Christian romance.

8. (Gratitude backstory: per helpful advice to budding authors, I'm trying out Twitter, mostly to follow other people parasitically and find blog fodder for UrbanFarmJunkie. Ungrateful sidebar: why is it that the agent who has been sitting on my full manuscript for over two months finds time to tweet all day long???) You can follow A.J. Jacobs on Twitter! He's the hilarious author of my much beloved THE KNOW-IT-ALL and THE YEAR OF LIVING BIBLICALLY. One day I will work up the nerve to comment.

9. I've been given an honorary degree from Harvard! (It counts if it's from a 7th grader, right? The thank-you note read, "I never knew you had written a book or taught at Harvard University." Neither did I! How wonderful.)

10. I'm back in the financial hole with MOURNING BECOMES CASSANDRA. This is a good problem to have because it means someone out there is reading...

That was so easy that I should add some bonus gratitude:

11. Party City sells TWILIGHT napkins. The perfect gag gift for only $3. And I do mean gag.

12. Eddie Izzard's best stand-up routine DRESSED TO KILL is now available on Netflix Instant Play. If you don't work for Steeple Hill and can stand some f-bombs, he is hilarious. Which is my favorite bit? Mass Murderers? How Engelbert Humperdinck picked his stage name? The Heimlich Maneuver?

There. Now don't I feel better? Happy Thanksgiving to all. Have fun lolling around on the couch, trying to snooze off all that tryptophan.