This time last year (Thanksgiving day) I was on Tecolote Beach in Baja, Mexico. I admit, I would have preferred to be there again, instead of here in Colorado. November is perhaps the least attractive month in Colorado. The bright leaves of October are gone. The trees and earth are bare and colorless. The snow hasn’t come yet, the days are short, the dark comes quickly. The cold sets in. November feels sad. The liveliness and warmth and color we’ve enjoyed since May, are gone. One suddenly has to adjust to the cold, to the early darkness, to the bare, gray landscape.

I’d certainly rather be on a Mexican beach this time of year. And what with the extreme medical situation I went thrtecolotebeachmeditationough, and the divorce that I’m in the middle of, it would be a fitting year to treat myself to a week of sea, sun, and margaritas. But I can’t afford it, so today, on Thanksgiving, I am thankful for the trip I took this time last year to Baja. I am thankful for the girl friend I traveled with. I am thankful for a chance to sit in that warm shallow soothing sea on Tecolote Beach, with the red isle of Espiritu Santo anchoring the horizon, symbolizing the allure of the next destination.