Just Sincerely and Honestly: Thank You

Happy November! This is one of my most thankful ones yet. I’m so grateful for November this year. Especially today, Nov. 3.

Today is my one-year anniversary of my first “Blog Day!” Blog Day! gets its own exclamation point, not just that sentence overall. You know, because you can’t say, “blog day,” without emotion. That would just be wrong.

Blog Day! is the third of every month for me–the day that these words I’m writing get pushed out and shared with an audience.

Nov. 3, 2017 marks the day my writing published on AWN for the first time. I dubbed the day Blog Day!, and over the past year, my little personal holiday has never disappointed me.

I just can’t help it. I’m absolutely stoked to have this opportunity. So, I’d like to say thank you.

Thanks for the chance, for this moment and this creative outlet.

Thanks for this connection to anyone who may have enjoyed any of the more than 12,000 words I’ve written over this past year. I wrote them for you, and I wrote them for me!

Grateful, as a single word, just doesn’t express enough of what this feeling is that I’m working my wordy way around. To me, I think, one of the best “thank you” sentiments I’ve ever heard can sort of explain it.

Here’s what Tom Petty said to his fans at a concert in Ontario back in 1995: “I’d like to just…just as sincerely and honestly as I can, here while we have this moment, to just…just thank you very much, and tell you it’s been a pleasure to play for you tonight. Thank you for coming.”

I wasn’t at that concert, but as long as we’re being thankful, props to you, Tom, for the brilliant Live Anthology album you released in 2009. I think it’s perfect the way that particular thank you is given before the last song of the whole collection. Perfect the way you can tell he really meant it when you hear it.

It was a pleasure for him to play. I’m guessing anytime he did play. The times it was fun, the times it was hard work, the times that felt like a struggle—during all those times, he was playing and pleased to be doing so. Thankful to be doing so.

So here’s what I’m trying to explain: To me, whenever I get to write, it’s like playing. Not like playing a guitar–but like doing something solely because you enjoy it, because you want to do it. The way a kid plays. I’ve had such a fun time writing this past year, even when it felt hard or like a struggle.

So, I thank you. The pleasure’s been all mine. Thank you for reading, and Happy Blog Day!

It’s kind of great that I’m more excited about my one-year Blog Day! anniversary than I am about my own birthday–which is also coming up. I even picked out a present for my husband to give me on my Blog Day! anniversary. I picked it out of jewelry that I already own. But, you know, my thought is, now that piece of jewelry can have a new meaning, and I can be thankful for it all over again.

I kind of love the idea of interpreting meaning. I’m going to take that necklace and have it be my reminder of how I get to write and have my writing read. My husband’s going to hand me that necklace and have it be a reminder that he may have married into something a little crazy–ha! Someone, someday, might compliment me on my Blog Day! necklace, having no idea what it means to me. Maybe they just enjoyed seeing it. Maybe someone else will see it on another day and think nothing of it at all.

It’s my hope that my writing can go on meaning different things to anyone who happens upon it, just like the many interpretations that might come along with something as simple as a necklace. I’m sure my interpretation of that Tom Petty thank you to his fans is different than what people took it to mean in 1995 and possibly different than what Tom was trying to express.

The point is, it meant something to him when he said it, and it meant something to his fans who were there in person at the concert. It certainly means something to me, even now, hearing it as a recording. It feels like he’s there, in that recording, playing (not just his guitar, but playing like a kid plays) and he’s thanking me personally, and he’s letting me know it’s a pleasure to have me listening.

Whatever meaning you gather from my writing, thank you so much for reading. My writing and your reading are the most perfect things I can think of to be thankful for on Blog Day!