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Can I Get a Witness?

            There’s a sermon here somewhere. What to be thankful for? Everything, pretty much. For children who are alive and body parts that still work.
            Let’s see. I’m living and breathing. My kids and husband are doing the same. I have memories that keep me happy and thinking. I have siblings who keep me guessing and engaged.
            I have a roof over my head and food in my cupboards.
            There are people right here in my town who I know have neither. They keep me hoping and dreaming.
            I’ve got enough food in my pantry right now to feed twenty people tomorrow. The only problem being that I don’t have twenty people coming.
            For years, my best Thanksgivings have been cooking for other people who I know don’t have a place to go. That means a true Thanksgiving to me. Feeding somebody who wouldn’t have otherwise had that great big fat meal I love so much.
            I love all the foods….turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pies of various kinds. It is all so good.
            At the heart of my cooking is this feeling that I need to feed people. I think this comes from my parents. They liked to feed people. We had this great big pot from which came so many soups. They all tasted good…now in my memory. When I was a kid I was not a fan of oxtail soup or beans and ham hocks. That grew on me. Nowadays, I’d love the gift of ham hocks or oxtails. I’d make a hearty soup of my own.
            To this day, soup means love to me — a big ol’ pot that serves a whole lot of people. Like Jesus with the loaves and fishes, the bigger the pot the more people served.
            Like every other year, I have a big turkey and way too many side dishes planned, not to mention the cookies and the pies. It may just be Chris, Dan and me this year; my older two babies aren’t here. For me Thanksgiving is about feeding my babies and any other babies who may show up in my life, no matter their age.
            There’s always something to be thankful for; even it seems like nothing. If you have a breath to take, hey, that’s something to be thankful for. I bet you don’t have to look very far to find something for which you feel gratitude. I know I don’t.

            Peace be with you and thank you for the gift of you.

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