Gratitude
...225 days to go...
Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday.
We have a tradition at my house where we begin every meal saying what we’re grateful for. This is one of my favorite parts of every day because I have a lot to be grateful for, and I love sharing that with my family. Thanksgiving is kind of like a supercharged version of that ritual.
This week was a very challenging one for reasons unrelated to this project. So Thanksgiving couldn’t come at a better time because it reminds me, even during a difficult moment, how much I have to be grateful for.
This year, I’m especially grateful for something that happened in just the last two weeks. Dedicated readers will recall I spoke to the Seattle City Council about the need for funding a reserve for $36 million in federal funding our community will lose that supports our precariously housed neighbors.
I’m grateful to report that the Seattle City Council chose to allocate $20 million for this purpose. The King County Council has also introduced a budget amendment asking incoming County Executive Girmay Zahilay to propose a supplemental budget by March to add to these reserves. It appears possible that we could backfill the entire amount and keep hundreds or thousands of members of our community from returning to the streets.
Other speakers at that City Council meeting spoke about the need to extend the leases of two tent communities: Tent City 3 and Tent City 4. I’m also happy to report that both TC3 and TC4 have been extended an additional six months. Had these leases expired, these villages would have had nowhere to go and would have scattered, losing the only communities many of them have. “Without shelter, people die,” many speakers at the public comment correctly pointed out. I’m sure these extensions will save lives.
Beyond this, I’m grateful for my incredible family. The advice and support I get every day from my beautiful wife, every smile and hug from my two daughters, and the fact that my parents and my brother’s family are, as I post this, flying across the country to join us for a feast in Seattle.
Finally, but certainly not least, I’m grateful to all the readers of this blog. It has been deeply sustaining this year knowing so many of you care enough about me or this project to read these words every week.
Thank you, and happy Thanksgiving!