Hello one and all, and Happy Thanksgiving!

This is a quiet day for me, as I often spend this over recent years in solitude and escape. Thanksgiving is a day of more self-reflection for me, with my family very distant (but have long morning phone calls) and reserve time with friends for late nights and the following weekend.

Now we have a pandemic, and we should be playing it safe and unless others are close, with heavy pre-quarantining to a gathering is 5 or less. and still sanitizing and taking extra measures. If not, avoid and sit this day out and be safe.

But many of us still have our thanks to share. In a larger scope, I’m thankful for essential workers, medical care workers, public service workers, volunteers, those working hard to keep others safe or maintain basic necessities for those in need, so that there will be a life waiting beyond this Covid-19 public health crisis. Such struggles are difficult, with many tragic stories (some very personal to me, and my reason for not writing lately). I hope there will be a wider appreciation and respect for those who dealt with this pandemic up front, and never forget those who also died and suffered as a result.

I also want to share thanks to those who have follow trough on the small inconveniences of social distancing, hand-sanitizing, mask-wearing, and matching the basic common sense spelled out by science and safety guidelines. The effects of Covid-19 are much more than death stats and the misconception that it’s like the flu or whatever. Those who took on the full effects will tell you, it’s horrifying and you need to stay the hell away from this.

I feel fortunate to remain uninfected and financially secure. My mental health has its ups and downs. This month morphed me into a turtle-like creature stasis, shelling myself from social media and the extreme polarizations brought along memes and political finger-wagging. I poke my head out for friends who knock on my shell, and we share in some quiet, very fun low-key treasures and cheerful spirits. We express support, of which these special friends and close relatives I am very thankful for. I would be in worse shape if not for all that.

So, Happy Thanksgiving! Remain safe and look after you and close ones mental health for the days forward. Be thankful, because with all the restrictions and precautions taken, we can still go with the basics of what Thanksgiving is supposed to be about, and still intact for 2020.

– Orion T

The above picture is taken from the Kubota Garden, a lovely little place I recently visited and wrote about a few years ago. I have new pictures of this wonderful place for another day. But for now, I just feel like the little bird, alone and making the most of its surroundings.

Speaking of little birds…