I know that one is supposed to update a blog at LEAST once a week if one is to keep any readers, but sadly, it seems about once every ten days is the best I can do these days. For now, it will just have to do.

I think I mentioned in my last post that a songwriting friend of mine asked me if I could generate some poems she could use as lyrics. I have done so, and whether anything more ever comes from the effort or not, I have found it very rewarding just to sit down and generate the work. I have never considered poetry one of my best forms of writing, but I did find I had at least a few good ones in me. And I still plan to try to write more. It is truly a case where the joy is in the writing, not in what later becomes of it.

My work situation is so much better than it was a year ago that I can hardly fathom that I work for the same place. There's a new air of hope and enthusiasm in the place that can't all be inside my head. Closer to my heart, I'm still in love with my little staff of marketers and feel so blessed that not only are they really effective employees, but I actually enjoy their company. Similarly, my two close peers, the other executive managers who report to the president, are gifted and lovable people too. I believe this job is exactly where God wants me to be at this moment.

All the other parts of life are hitting on all cylinders, too. After 19 years of marriage and well over 20 years in love with the guy, Bob still lights up my life. There is nobody I'd rather hang with or come home to at the end of the day. He is so thoughtful and considerate and he shows me that he cares in a hundred tiny ways each day. Sam is the healthiest and the most enjoyable he has ever been. We are part of supporting communities through his school, through our church and through his Scout troop. What a lot of great people that is in our lives!!

I'm currently psyched about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. (Yeah, I know it's a little ways ahead, but I've always valued anticipation!) Bob's brother Bill lives in Michigan and for -- I don't know, maybe 7 or 8 years now? -- he has hosted as many of the extended family as can make it at his place for Thanksgiving. Except last year we had to change it, because their dad was in the nursing home, and by celebrating Thanksgiving there in their home town, we were able to spring him and have him enjoy the day with the family. It wasn't the same, plus there was a pall over the gathering as we all knew Dad was in bad shape. We lost Dad Beasley back in February, so this will be a return to the previous tradition. Bill and his wife, Teri, are amazingly good hosts. Bill insists on doing all the cooking for the holiday feast, but we all pitch in on munchies and a meal for Friday. (This bash starts either late Wednesday or midday Thursday and runs through Saturday morning.) Their house, though really just outside of town, feels like you're isolated in the country. And for the rest of us it really is isolated far from our homes and busy lives. So it's a really nice little oasis of relaxed family time. We watch football, some people read, some play cards, somewhere over the course of it we usually drink. And we visit. We REALLY visit. It is relaxing and healing and we reconnect with each other and I am totally looking forward to it!!!!

One last image I include because it struck me as quintessentially Susan. On Saturday night Bob was out working at a fundraiser for a church group. I took Sam to a Halloween party and had a couple hours to myself before it would be time to pick him up again. I came home and turned on the World Series game, opened my laptop and Bible, and spent my time watching baseball and writing a scripture-based poem that might become a song lyric. At some point I looked at myself and realized I was probably the only person in America doing exactly what I was doing! And what was more, I was doing exactly what I wanted to be doing!