Vibrant Nation

I'm thankful beyond belief to have been given one more opportunity to build a once and for all, this is it, loving, committed relationship. I've been luckier than some, and have had other chances, but for whatever reason - mismatch, emotional immaturity, circumstances beyond our control - I've never been able to get there.

We're all looking for it - to love and be loved. I'm not sure which end of the equation is harder, but it's clear that we need to be willing to do both. At any rate, I've been given the chance to try again, and this time I'm not going to squander it. (I'm reminded of a bumper sticker spotted in Texas when the bottom feel out of the oil market: "Please God, give us oil one more time, and we promise not to piss it away.")

Against all odds, I've found something remarkable, but I'm keenly aware that it takes more than luck to feed it, nurture it, and grow it into something real and solid and sustainable. In fact, I believe the simple act of gratitude goes a long way to creating the very thing we're looking for. I will never take what Russ and I have together for granted, and I will never, never "piss it away". This is it. I'm going for broke."

[Editor's note: Visit Sarah's Journal to get the inside scoop on her new-found love.]

This has been a trying year for my family and countless others, but it's definitely kept my priorities in focus. I'm grateful for my family, my work, and the freedom to shape my own future.

This Thanksgiving, I’ll be thankful for the many dear friends I made while working on the Barack Obama campaign. I’ve come to know exceptional young people who have the best interest of our country at heart, neighbors who share my political views, wonderful women and men of all races, faiths, ages who passionate about the change we need and who live just a stone’s throw from where I had felt isolated as a liberal Democrat for many years.

Collectively we have such tremendous hope for our country and our world with the leadership of Obama and Biden. During the election season, I’ve witnessed the true power of the American spirit. This Thanksgiving I will feel especially grateful for this chance to transform our nation and our world along positive paths that provide hope, opportunity and peace for us all.

And that’s just in addition to the thankfulness I feel for my family, friends, business and our staff, my wonderful husband Jim and our best pals Roxie, the yellow lab, Sundance, the golden retriever and Bogey, the amazing guide dog.

I am grateful for the enthusiasm that so many people are showing for greener living. It’s been a really long time coming. I celebrated the first Earth Day in 1970 and got my master’s degree in 1977. I have been in the trenches for a really long time. There were the Reagan years--it was sort of the dark ages--and we had a little glimmer of hope during the Clinton years, and then we just really regressed back to the Pleistocene in the Bush administration.

So it’s very exciting to see this confluence of new leadership and a voice for change at the highest levels of government. But at the grassroots level, the tremendous enthusiasm for individual actions that will protect people and the planet. There’s a new awareness that people have, I think, that what we do to the environment, we do to ourselves and vice versa.

There’s also this great eagerness to do the right thing. So I’m just grateful that we’ve gotten to this point, and I hope it’s not too late. I don’t think that it is. I think we’ve got a few years left, and I’m grateful that we finally are all coming together.

I joined Vibrant Nation about a month ago, but I would like to say I'm very grateful to have been born in the day and & age I live in.  Our generation has been witness to so many miracle, advances in technology  and the ability become most anything we set our minds to.  I am thankful for family, friends of life long aquaintance & new friends.  I am grateful that as many mistakes and accomplishments I make I can still learn something new every day. I'm blessed by a chance to be creative and explore my "inner child ."   I am blessed to have choices.