Ladies, Gentlemen, and Fae-folk:

Once again, the turning of the Vault brings us closer to Logosmas, and once again I find myself meditating on the subject of gratitude. A little over one hundred years ago, I shared my thoughts with you on disparity, despair, and the persistence of gratitude nonetheless. I posited that gratitude is not a result, but a state of mind. It is not merely a practice, but a principle.

I still believe this to be true. Once again, I am not the same person I was a century ago. I have experienced much, changed a little, and watched as time has gone by in a maelstrom of world-changing events too numerous to recount. I have achieved much of what I once only believed to be dreams, and I have lost a great deal of what I once thought to be set in stone.

Time change, people change, but certain things do not change. My belief in the importance of living in gratitude remains unchanged, for example, for I believe this to be a social truth for we mortals as social beings: we live in a thankless world, but that does not mean we cannot be thankful. We have much for which to be thankful. Some of it is obvious, and some just so if should we simply turn our heads a little bit to see it.

And so, I say to each and every one of you: thank you. I am grateful for the world we share, and for all of you who make it so colourful and grand.

In Song,
Taelle Starling

Penned by my hand on the 4th of Scarlatan, in the year 991 AF.