Thankful for the Beauty in Ordinary Things

East 50th Street, Manhattan

This past Thursday, the winter of 2018 abruptly ended the autumn of 2018.

Walking down East 50th Street in New York that evening, I saw police tape surrounding the area underneath a favorite tree.

Sadly, here's a last photo of that tree. It was taken down soon afterwards, having been irreparably damaged by heavy snow.

Weeks earlier, autumn had abruptly ended the summer of 2018. Following days of record-breaking warm weather, I found myself on the nearly deserted boardwalk at Seaside Park on a chilly October night.

Mirroring this, in the same time frame, I read two books ("Sharp Objects" and "Looking for Alaska") and listened to an audio performance of the play "Girls & Boys" -- and all had abrupt revelations and plot twists (read my book reviews).

Considering all this -- how suddenly things change -- this coming Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, has special meaning to me.

I thought, at first, that I should post a list of things I'm thankful for -- just like the "things that make life worth living" scene in the movie "Manhattan"... without the Woody Allen creepiness.

My list soon filled with things that would probably look a lot like your list, and everybody else's list. Family. Friends. Individual blessings. It made me think about how connected we really are.

And then I drove to work this morning.

There's a 10-mile stretch of Route 80 through Fairfield, NJ -- heading west past the Route 23 and Willowbrook Mall onramps and offramps, and leading to the split to Route 287 -- where the traffic usually flows freely but with seemingly monotonous scenery as the highway cuts along Great Piece Meadows.

Casino Pier, Seaside Park

Lately, my little Instagram brain has been noticing how beautiful this drive is. With the sun rising behind me, the light reflects in a million ways off the clouds ahead of me -- and sometimes fog rises like smoke from the wooded areas along the side of the highway.

During this part of the journey on this morning's commute, the radio played a favorite song: Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed."

I thought, how beautiful the world is and how lucky I am to be here.

Meanwhile, the recent "Saturday Night Live" cameo by actress Jenna Fischer reminded me of the last line in the last episode of "The Office."

It sums up what I'm most thankful for this Thanksgiving Day:

There's a lot of beauty in ordinary things. Isn't that kind of the point?

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PS- In early November, I posted here about my commitment to start a novel during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and promised an update here. It turns out I don't have the Joycean stream-of-consciousness gene. I need to research and plan things out, and I can show you the hair-raising spreadsheet to prove it!

However, I have been writing every day. Sometimes, like Elton John's "Rocket Man," because it's just my job five days a week. But I'm very excited about this current project and do plan to post an excerpt at year-end, like I did last year. Stay tuned -- and thank you to friends who always support whatever writing I do!