Calvin and Hobbes and Anthony and Me

OhEmmGee, Anthony! Here's yet ANOTHER example of how some of us loved you so much, right from the start, that we voluntarily took on full responsibility of your music and literature appreciation studies.
Thusly, we read Calvin and Hobbes and Gary Larson's the Far Side to you instead of Dr. Seuss (even though we love that, too-but you get plenty of that at home and school!). And we began to expose you to the timeless wonders of Bono and U2, REM, OMD, and even the Cure and the Violent Femmes, early enough to arm you with the ability to discover for yourownself that there exists in Art, in all its glorious forms, Inspiration, Calming, Healing, Learning,and JOY...to the WORLD, Anthony, to the WORLD! Including CHILDREN, of which you were one.
And that Full House and the Disney Channel were as unrealistic as the Cosby Show.
You're welcome.
Love always,
Your Third Word

*Shared Memory Session-Join us if you can*
Close your eyes (or whoever's eyes you're using at the moment-we aren't here to judge, at the moment, anyway) and summon forth that picture you have in your mind of Little Anthony (approximate age three to twelve),  sitting on that radioactively blue, EXTRA-shag, carpet in his room, engrossed in the tattered pages of Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side. 
Feel THAT?  That's Love.  And true Joy.  And that other feeling? That's the Pride.  And that pride comes not from some grandiose belief that he wouldn't have found these treasures on his own, but that, because of Us, he found them In Time.

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving 2012

I am grateful for:

1    The ability to walk
2    and the ability to talk, and the (admittedly limited) ability to hold my tongue.
3   And the ability to love
4    And the ability to share
5    and the ability to laugh and
6    the ability to sing, or at least the ability to LISTEN with a joyful heart.
7    For the gift of comfort when I need it most.
8    For the dear ones who live on in my most precious memories.
9    For those who stayed when the rest turned away.
10   For those who are willing to share the worst, and in so doing, make the worst better.
11   For glimpses past armor, and disguises adopted in defense, to the vulnerable brothers and sisters sharing this space, this world, because, no matter what else changes, we are STILL each other's keepers. 
12    For every time another saw my pain, and simply...cared.
13    For every time another thought of me, during a moment of prayer.
14    For each and every time I felt a silent thanks when words wouldn't come,
15    and for each and every time another sensed the same from me.
16     For happiness that lingers long after a visit.
17    For learning to face  and trust the woman in the mirror,
18    and for learning to love and forgive her, too.
19     For chocolate, dark and light, in all its glorious forms!
20     For smiles shined on you from a child you've never seen before.
21    For women the world over, great with child.
22    For long, soft kisses that keep us young.
23    For moments of wonder, gazing up at the sky.
24    For seeing ourselves in others, and loving them anyway.
25    For standing against evil, despite our own fears,
26   For being willing to listen when another just needs to be heard.
27    For every time children sleep withOUT tears dried on their cheeks.
28    For every moment my body isn't wracked with pain,
29    For every moment my heart isn't breaking,
30    and for every heartbeat, and every breath that I don't have to struggle to take.

Who needs Therapy? NOT Me!

Once upon a verrry long time ago, I got all mad at NightTime and I un-friended him on Facebook because I hated his guts and never wanted to have anything to do with him EVER again, EXACTLY like that Taylor Swift song that I hate but, until this very moment, I didn't realize that's WHY I hated that song so much.

*later that same day*

I wasn't mad anymore and, for some reason, I thought NightTime might give-a-care that I had un-friended him so I snuck his phone away from him, sent and accepted a new friend request, then deleted the evidence of the "new" friend and relationship activity (that sounds dirty... And GROSS, Facebook!) so as not to hurt his feelings, and he never, ever, EVER knew anything about it until he reads this later today!