Who I'm Grateful For. By Bob Guccione Jr.
I’m grateful for the sun shining, and the shade to sit in to keep out of it. I’m grateful for the sun rising in the first place (or, more accurately, that I’m here each new day to see it, if not rising exactly then hovering, somewhere near the noon mark). I’m grateful for every person that shows even the slightest kindness and warmth toward me. And I’m grateful for my health which, to no one’s surprise more than mine, is good.
I’m just one of those people that is abundantly grateful, abundantly aware of the blessings of life, starting with life. I’m a happy guy. I’m often a lucky guy but not always. I’ve been down and badly so. I have not woken up every day in a bed of roses.
So, you almost have to factor me out in any mean average of human gratitude, because my default position is to be grateful, mindful of how lucky and loved I can be from moment to moment, and how periods of great darkness can nonetheless be relieved with piercing shards of blessings.
The person I’m most grateful for, daily, is the great love of my life. But let’s disqualify her, on all the obvious grounds. The person I’m most grateful for outside of that intimacy is my extremely special friend Paul. I won’t use his second name because he’s genuinely humble (most people aren’t genuinely humble) and not a little shy. This is a guy who, having been given an award by a Catholic Church Order at a dinner years ago, gave the shortest acceptance speech in history — he was on his way back to our table before I had finished folding my napkin.
Paul and I met more than twenty years ago when he ran a boutique, white-shoe Wall Street investment firm. We came from opposite sides of the business spectrum and experience and I was certainly not their usual client and I didn’t try to pretend to be. We shared a deep faith in God and a shaken and sometimes skeptical but nonetheless intact fidelity to Catholicism. We also liked girls and, both being single then, were allowed to.
Business was a very secondary and eventually non-existent aspect of our relationship as our friendship grew. We supported each other emotionally through tough relationships and life’s spray of disappointments. We laughed a lot, and, really, some of the things we laughed at I can never tell you because mobs with lit torches would hunt me down.
When I fell on some hard times several years ago, which I went through for years, with the occasional break here and there, Paul always picked me up. He didn’t have to do that always. He never failed. He offered me help more times than I accepted it. But he was unfailingly in my corner. That constant support gave me strength. That was invaluable, as in, seriously, its value can never be measured. I am so, so grateful for that solid friendship, that dear love.
To the Person Who Allows Me To Just Be. By Randi Saelinger
A knock at the door, dogs are barking and there stands my best friend holding a bottle of champagne with her two kids in tow. It’s like she saw my bat signal across town. I needed her and she just knew it. All I could do was gasp and say “you are here!” and of course she was, she was always there without ever having to be asked.
I feel like these silent friendships get so overlooked nowadays. The ones that make your stomach hurt from laughing so hard, the ones that know your pizza order without asking. The most special friendships are the ones where you can just sit together while your children run around the house wild and you know you aren’t being judged for your toddler only having a diaper on, your daughter’s “makeover” she gave herself, and your hair is in the same bun for 3 days.
Everyone thinks the best friendships are the ones plastered all over social media, the ones where we are looking our best with the fancy Instagram captions but I am thankful for the ones where I am sitting on my couch in my pajamas drinking a strong mimosa with my person and just being in the moment however I needed to be. Talking, sitting in silence, dancing with the kids in the living room, helping me manage my life while my husband was deployed, whatever it may be, she was always there, never having to be asked.
For those moments she allowed me to just be, I am forever grateful.
Person, I’m Most Grateful For? My Dog. By Liza Lentini
Yep, that’s right: The person I’m most grateful for is my dog, Alfie. He’s about to turn 12, and he’s the best friend a girl could ask for. He’s been suffering from one illness or another his whole life, and over the last year, his health took a scary turn. I’ve never not appreciated him, but I’m savoring every tiny moment and thanking him for waking up each morning.
I hadn’t exactly planned on adopting this “untrainable” dog. But it was love at first sight. He was so scrappy and talkative I named him Alfie after the 1966 Michael Caine movie and song. Only a little bit after did I realize that Alfie is an anagram for “A Life”, and we’ve had quite the life together. Of all the things I’m known for, taking Alfie with me absolutely freaking everywhere is one of them. I adopted Alfie in one of my most difficult years. He instantly made it better.
Dog people are the best people, and dogs are the best “people”. To quote Temple Grandin: “Animals make us human”. Thank you, Alfie, for making me human.
If you love me as much as I love you (and I really do love you!), then please help me grow by forwarding this {love} Letter to a friend! And I'd love to have you join us on instagram, facebook & twitter.
