Coming Home

by Ava Cuvay

Several weeks ago, Wrangler Janie had asked if someone could punt for her for this week’s blog. Since the gals haven’t culled me from the herd yet, I happily volunteered. The other Wranglers welcomed me back, and it certainly feels like coming home… especially on this week of Thanksgiving.

My theme for today’s blog was a natural extension. Coming home. It’s what we do during the holidays, especially a family-oriented one such as Thanksgiving. Aside from the excuse to eat mass quantities of food, Thanksgiving is really about coming home. Home, the place where you feel comfortable and welcome. Where you can put your feet up and relax, be yourself, and take a deep breath and rejuvenate from the stress of the world outside that warm circle. This includes the Thanksgiving celebrations that span generations and extended families, gatherings that include friends and neighbors, and even those events (like mine) that aren’t much different than any other family dinner except this one includes pie.

The Wranglers are one of my homes. A place where I feel welcome. Where I am comfortable enough to be myself. Where I can kick up my heels, breathe deep, and revitalize. It’s a family, and our writing is what brings these gals together. But we don’t stop at that. We support and encourage each other in our lives as well. Our children, our jobs, our frustrations and successes. Writing is such a personal and often solitary experience, but it infiltrates our lives. So being part of a writer family is so crucial to our health. And sanity.

I adore this Wrangler family I have, even when I hang around in the shadows merely observing. These gals are warm and beautiful in their hearts and souls. A welcoming, understanding, energizing family to be part of! To all the writers out there, I encourage you to find a family (or more than one!) of your own that can be this for you. To everyone else, I wish you a delightful Thanksgiving week (and to Jana and our Canadian friends, who celebrated their Thanksgiving in October, I hope yours were filled with the same sense of coming home!). And I hope your lives are filled with family, friends, and a time to come Home. Oh, and pie ;-)