By: Kimberly Welsh
November has a way of making us talk about gratitude. With Thanksgiving approaching, we’re reminded to think about the people, experiences, and everyday moments we’re thankful for.
Of course, gratitude isn’t something that belongs in one month—or to one day gathered around a table with entirely too much food. There are always things I’m grateful for every day of the year.
But I do think there’s something valuable about having a season that asks us to stop and notice them.
Because life gets busy. We move from one thing to the next. We make lists, solve problems, worry about what hasn’t happened yet, and start thinking about what needs to happen tomorrow before we’ve even finished today.
Sometimes it’s good to stop and look around at what’s already here.
And this year, I have so much to be grateful for.
I’m always grateful for my family.
We genuinely enjoy being together. We laugh a lot. We support one another. We show up for each other. And as our kids have grown, our family has grown and changed, too. There’s something pretty wonderful about discovering that you don’t just love the adults your children become—you really like them, too. And you like the people they choose to bring into the family.
I’m grateful for the time we have together, whether we’re doing something special or absolutely nothing special at all.
I’m also incredibly grateful for the adventure that has been Curious Whisker Press.
At the beginning of the year, it didn’t exist. Charlie, of course, did. His stories had been tucked away for years, waiting for me to decide what I wanted to do with them. And then I did.
Since then, this little idea has grown into something much bigger than I imagined when I first pulled those stories back out.
I’m grateful to Vicky, whose thoughtful editing has helped me see my stories differently and make them stronger without losing what made them mine in the first place.
I’m grateful for Iryna, who has taken a cat I loved for more than twenty years—and a character who has lived in my imagination for nearly as long—and began creating a visual world for him.
I’m grateful for every teacher and educator who has offered advice, reviewed curriculum, asked questions, or helped me think differently about how Charlie might find his way into classrooms.
And I’m grateful for the people who have followed along, read a blog, watched a video, left a comment, asked about the book, or simply told me they’re excited to meet Charlie.
Then there are the people closest to the whole adventure.
I’m grateful for Jesse, who has supported this idea from the beginning—even when supporting it has meant listening to me talk through the same decision seventeen different ways, looking at things he probably never expected to have an opinion about, and trusting me when I said, “I think I really want to do this.”
And I’m grateful for Elena, who is running right beside me. There’s something especially meaningful about building Curious Whisker Press with the little girl whose curiosity helped inspire Charlie’s adventures in the first place. Now she’s grown, bringing her own ideas and talents to the project, challenging mine when necessary, and helping me turn this little publishing company into something real.
And Liam? I’m grateful for him, too. I’m grateful for his intelligence and humor, for the person he’s becoming, and for the glimpses I get of the adult who is beginning to emerge. Parenting changes as your children grow. You spend years being responsible for almost every part of their lives, and then, little by little, you get to step back and watch them become themselves. That’s a pretty remarkable thing.
I’m grateful for other things, too. The opportunity to spend time with my mom and still make memories together. Friends. Good conversations. Dogs waiting at the door. Morning walks. A body that lets me keep moving. Books that make me think. Work that excites me. Ordinary days when nothing particularly remarkable happens.
Maybe that’s what gratitude means to me. It isn’t pretending everything is perfect. It isn’t ignoring the hard things or insisting we should be thankful every minute.
It’s noticing.
It’s taking inventory every once in a while and realizing that, even amid the things we’re still waiting for, working toward, or worrying about, there is always so much that is good.
I hope I remember to notice those things all year long.
But I’m also grateful for a season that reminds me to stop and take a closer look.
