If God invited us all to a table and told us to put our problems on the table before us and look at everyone's problems, we'd take our own and go home

In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving I found myself dreading the inevitable question. What are you thankful for? It's not that I don't have things to be thankful for. I think it is just that I had to take a long hard look at my life.

With the cluster fuck that is my extended family these days I didn't think I could be thankful for family. But I think about the people that have welcomed us into their homes over the last couple of weeks and years when my own family choose to turn their backs on us. I realized that blood doesn't necessarily mean family.

I am thankful for friends. I am thankful for those that bother to give two shits. Difficult times are guaranteed to reveal to you one thing...who your real friends are. It is difficult knowing there are those that know I am back home and going through some hard times and haven't bothered to pick up the damn phone. But there are a few that I can count on when it matters.

I am thankful for my health. Even though there are times I look at myself in the mirror and hate what I see physically, I could be suffering from a rare form of cancer like my aunt's sister. But I am not.

And I am thankful for my sister. Without her sometimes I don't know what I would do. Without knowing it she gives me purpose.