Thanks a lot!

Now that Thanksgiving's right around the corner, I'd like to write about some of the things I'm grateful for. In one of my favorite Christmas movies -- It's a Wonderful Life -- George Bailey's hapless guardian angel Clarence not only saves George from killing himself, but also allows him to imagine what his world would have been like if George had never been born. To begin with, his younger brother would have died because George would not have been there to save him. The upshot of the film is that George is showered with gifts of on New Year's Eve by the grateful residents of New Bedford Falls. Of course, there's that wonderful closing comment by George's youngest daughter Zouzou: "My teacher says that whenever you hear a bell ring, it means an angel has got his wings." Then you see George wink up to heaven and say: "Way to go, Clarence," as that angel finally gets his wings!

Sometimes, I've wondered what my world would have been like if I had never been born, or if I had died as an infant. But what I like to imagine even more is what things would have been like if certain people hadn't been there to impact my life in a positive way. I'd like to begin at the beginning. If a poor parish priest who survived four years in Dachau concentration camp hadn't persuaded a poor refugee couple Karl and Anna Wentersdorf to adopt me in 1947, I may well have died in that German orphanage. If that priest's housekeeper Tante Rosa hadn't nurtured me and taken me under her wing after my adopting mother's death, my grief would have been ten times worse. And if my dad hadn't decided to emigrate with me to the U.S. when I was nine years old, I would never have experienced life in another country and another culture. Of course, this kind of speculation goes both ways. I can't imagine what my life would have been like if my adopting mother had lived. But I prefer to concentrate on the positives.

Even in my darkest moments, there were always rays of light. After two traumatic foster home experiences when I was ten years old, the third foster home my dad chose for me turned out to be a great blessing. I became the ninth kid in a family of eight, and I was befriended by the oldest boy Patrick who took me under his wing and introduced me to all his friends. Even during the bleakest times in my teen years when I was friendless and lonely, my life was transformed for one week by a kindly Catholic nun named Sister Elissa who invited me attend her eighth grade classroom and stay with the family of one of her pupils named Ross. He made me feel welcome, introduced me to his friends, and invited me to play baseball. At the end of that week, I was showered with letters from the whole class who made me feel welcome and cared for, even popular.

In the course of my adult life, there were lots of people and programs that profoundly altered my life trajectory. One of the biggest was the residential treatment for mentally ill adults called Wellspring whose therapists enabled me to work on my early abandonment issues and other emotional traumas. I think that program saved my life. Another highly impactful group was the Walker Church community where I was not only able to reclaim my spirituality, but also make so many great friends, and flourish in my creative pursuits of music, writing, and storytelling. I also owe a lot of thanks to folks like Larry, Elaine, Maren, Sarah, Lynn, Pati, Bonne and my many other mentors in storytelling who unlocked the door of stories for me, and helped me grow in confidence in telling my own tales.

Of course, music has always played a prime role in my life. Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion Show introduced me to lots of great songs and stories, Garrison's own Queen of the Autoharp - Stevie Beck -- opened up the world of the autoharp for me, which quickly became my favorite instrument to play. There were wonderful music festivals like The Winnipeg Folk Festival and The Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering where I met and heard other autoharp enthusiasts, as well as musicians of all stripes.

I could go on and on to describe all the other wonderful people who've made my life so much richer and more meaningful because of their intervention. But I'm going to stop for now. I just know that I have so much to be thankful for. And I'm glad I've lived long enough to benefit from all these experiences.