Grateful

A year ago today I was laid off from a company that I loved. After years of dedication, in a matter of minutes, I was let go. In a single moment, I lost my job, my routine, my identity. I remember how the floor seemed to collapse underneath me and I became a zombie, sort of there, but not really. I could see people talking, but not hear anything. 
In the year since then, I have re-learned how to live. Bit by bit. I have learned -- among a million hard-won lessons -- that I am not my job. My heart is who I am and my heart sees and feels and hurts and guides. 
Today I am so grateful to be here, to be on this side of that chasm of pain, to feel the sense that life is a whole, layered richness of being -- much clearer on what I am looking for in this lifetime, happy, healthy, gratefully here here here here here here. 
I am so grateful to be here today and to know what I know now. 
And I am so grateful to you. 
Thank you for being here, for bearing witness to my evolution as I bear witness to yours. We are all doing the best we can with what we've got, stumbling forward, sometimes falling backwards, beautifully caught in a web of pure humanity that holds us together when we are falling apart ... and that carries us forward into new days and new years.