I know it’s kind of a cliche to suddenly remember, once a year, that I am grateful for a bunch of stuff, but this being my Birthday Season, and several other minor holidays (ha ha!) that hype thankfulness and gratitude, I must admit that there are things I am grateful for, despite all the traumas of the last 5 years.

Of course 2020 was the worst.

I think I am still suffering from the extreme trauma of TFG’s final (we hope) year in office, with a global pandemic that said former guy used to try to punish his enemies and do a little extra grifting at the same time.

Sigh.

First, I am grateful that most of my friends and panda community have stayed safe through all of this. There were some casualties but in the scheme of things, compared to much of the country, my personal world was not destroyed. It was rocked though, (and not in a good way) and I miss seeing my far flung circle of friends in person.

I am grateful for the daily text check-ins with the Traveling Panda Sisterhood, without which I might have lost my mind. I mean more than usual.

I am grateful that I found needle felting. It was a small miracle that I got to repeatedly stab things without getting arrested. (Note the the FBI: I am referring to making wool animals from wool fiber, so please do not show up on my porch to question me.)

I am grateful to all of you who have decided they couldn’t live without little felt pandas and subsidized my wool purchase.

I am grateful to my writer friends who encourage me on this path and that my agents haven’t fired me.

I am grateful to the galleries and other venues that continue to show and sell my paintings, and keep a roof over my head, and remind me that my 7 years of art school and decades of continuing to put paint on paper and canvas were not wasted effort.

I am grateful to all of you who continue to read my ‘toons, buy my books, and tell me that I am, in fact, funny.

I am grateful for pandas, who provide inspiration every day. I would be REALLY grateful if I could hold a tiny baby panda someday, but I may have to be content with watching videos of panda nannies dandling tiny pandas on their laps, and know that they love their little, fluffy, chubby charges.

I am grateful for so many things

Hey! it’s almost time to get ready for 31 Days of Pandas!!!

Be the Bear!
Bob T Panda