Home, sweet home

It is still (just) Thanksgiving Weekend, so here are some things for which I am grateful.

• Thanksgiving: although England (where I was born and grew up) has public holidays (known as "bank holidays"), those are either religious (Christmas, Easter) or entirely devoid of meaning beyond the extra day off work. My favorite is the "late summer bank holiday", often synchronous with Labor Day, but not always. We adopted Thanksgiving easily and happily when we arrived in the US... it is a great, inclusive holiday with its own rituals shared by all. We love it.
• My family: my oldest daughter (currently a high-school junior) returned home from a three-month program overseas last Tuesday. We all missed her a great deal, and it is a joy for us that she is back home. We know in a couple of years she will be off on her own, and so these moments, weeks and months we have together now are all the more precious.
• Friends: I am blessed with wonderful friendships - you know who you are - thanks!
• Newton, MA: apparently Newton again made the list of America's safest cities, for the umpteenth time. That's a great start, but Newton, despite being a bustling small city and a suburb of a big(ish) city, is also a village. I can't spend an hour in Starbucks or Peets without seeing at least one person I know (other than whomever I am meeting!) and often I see several friends or neighbors.
• Cycling: this blog is often about my cycling, and my cycling buddies. Cycling has provided a way for me to get fit and enjoy nature, and become involved in Hazon ... all good things.
• Work: I really do enjoy my work at Sigma Partners (which is good - there is a lot of it). I get to spend time with bright, creative, driven people working on developing new businesses which are often drivers of job creation and economic growth. When we do well, then our investors do well, and many of our investors are charitable and educational institutions, so despite being at the sharp, pointy end of the capitalist machine("red in tooth and claw"?), our success supports many good causes.
• My health: 'nuf said.