Today, I got to celebrate Thanksgiving with family. I got to chat on the phone and text or email with more family, and a ton of friends.

Right now, as the night winds down, we are relaxing at home. We had a great dinner at my in-laws, then the four of us came back here and watched a movie. Now Jeanne is at the table, working on a beautiful wooden jigsaw puzzle she got as a gift. Max is playing a game online with some of his buddies from school, laughing and yelling as they talk to each other over their headsets. Maggie had a workout and is just about to fall asleep…and I am thinking about how thankful I am to have had today.

Lord, I’m thankful to have been here for this day. I’m thankful for my wife and children, my parents and brother and sister, nephews, nieces, aunts and uncles. I’m thankful for all my in-laws, all of my amazing co-workers, my incredible friends, the wonderful “Team Tony”, and the skilled, dedicated, compassionate doctors and nurses and health-care professionals of St. Joe’s Hospital who very literally saved my life.

I’m thankful for a career I love, and the theatre I get to help run, and the people who support it. I’m thankful for the giant pile of leaves that we should’ve gotten to by now, but didn’t, and thankful for the wonderful way they smell and crunch and blow in the wind and I know that in the Spring they’ll be a mess to clean up…and I’m even thankful for that.

This list could go on until my fingers wear out from typing. Baseball, podcasting for Golden Spiral Media with my pal Joe, Prince’s new albums, directing one of my best friends in a beautiful play this week, my new coat, the pot of coffee my fabulous wife leaves for me every morning, the little jokes that only she and I will get, seeing my kids knock everyone’s socks off in their school play and being the proudest father to walk the planet.

Life. I am so thankful for life. And for the second chance at it. And for the clarity that there is joy to be found everywhere, and reasons to celebrate everything if you allow yourself to recognize and embrace them.

Thanks, Universe…for helping me remember that every day is worthy of giving thanks.