“It’s amazing how much more you appreciate your family after believing that you’d lost them forever.”
– Julie Shackleford-Pitt, from Monster Hunter Guardian, by Larry Correia

Julie, being who she is, already loved her family, fiercely. Grandfather, great-grandfather, parents, siblings, husband, son, all of them. She loved them all absolutely. Over the years, she endured losses of several members of her family, but suddenly, all at once, she found herself facing the loss of everyone who was left, all at once. Fortunately, they were all spared, and she got her family back.

How exhilarating and joyful a day that would be, eh?

What’s that old saying? You don’t know what you have until it’s gone? And it’s true. Even the most grateful of us can tend to take things, and people, for granted. That is, until we don’t have it, or them, anymore.

Even if we never take them for granted, there are times when we are more thankful than usual.

Myself, I am immensely thanful for my family.

Even more, I am thankful for my family! By which, I mean that I have seen many families who treat each other far worse than mine does. We have our disputes, yes, everyone does, but I have never had cause to question the love and loyalty of my family. We don’t go around hurting each other, we look after each other. We aren’t there for what the others can do for us, but for what we can do for them. And we do not abandon each other.

It is one of my greater regrets in life that I have been able to do so very little for my loved ones, in the wake of everything they have done for me. I am working to try to change that, and I am glad for how I can help them now, but that regret still lingers, even knowing they don’t hold it against me.

But I digress.

For all the good times and bad, for all the arguments and frustration, for all the fun, happy, laughing, peaceful times, for all the times we cry together and support each other, for everything and more… I hope I never find myself ungrateful.

I am thankful for my family.