HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving means different things to different people. Some of you will be spending the day surrounded by family, food and football. Some will spend it alone, pondering what they have to be grateful about. Some will spend it in hospitals, in funeral homes, or on battle fields. For some, it is a day much the same as any other.

I will be home with my beloved, getting ready for our trip to Playa del Carmen, Mexico. We take off early Tuesday morning, so we opted not to go anywhere or make too big a deal out of turkey day. We'll cook a bird and make a pie. But mostly it will be a quiet day at home getting things ready for us to go out of town.

I have a neighbor who is a member of my church whose husband died last night. For her family, Thanksgiving will go by in a blur of tears and heartache as they make arrangements for a funeral to be held this weekend. I will do what I can to be of support to them.

I do indeed have a great deal to be thankful for this holiday. Sometimes I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the abundance of life that is at my disposal. I have good health, a comfortable home, a decent job, a man who loves me. I have a lot.

Two jobs ago I was doing poverty work, running a food bank and providing homeless case management in nearby Walla Walla. That experience forever shifted the way I would view my blessings and those who do not have the security and comfort I do. So part of what I will do this thanksgiving is to sit down and reflect on how I can be a better steward of all the Lord has blessed me with, and how I might share some of that abundance with others.

Then of course, there's always the traditional post turkey nap.