Thanksgiving is a time when many of us gather around the dining room table with family and friends, sharing our blessings and stuffing ourselves with delicious home-cooked culinary delights prepared by a kitchen saint. (And when we start imitating the animal kingdom by adding an extra layer of body fat to keep us warm during the long, cold winter months.)
But as we enter the winter holiday season, this is also a good time to slow down, take a deep breath, and offer that simple prayer: “Thank you”. Thank you for the many blessings that are visible but often out of focus as we are distracted by all the daily noise and our self-absorption.
Thankful for our friends and family who are still with us and for the comforting memories of those we have lost. Thankful for the neighbors who keep an eye on us and offer help even when we think we can do it ourselves. And thankful that each morning we can wake up, get out of bed, and start moving – although it may take a while to loosen up the old joints.
But maybe we should also be thankful for our misfortunes that remind us not to take anything for granted and to cherish each day – one day at a time. And then we can ask ourselves the question Charlie Brown posed “What if, today, we were grateful for everything?”
One of the strengths of our communities is our local businesses, and many small retail businesses depend on the holiday season. By shopping locally, you not only support those businesses, but you can ask questions in person; see what you’re buying (“It looked so different online!”); and discover those unique special gifts. So, during this holiday season don’t forget to shop local!
Also to sustain a vibrant and healthy community, it is important to support our art, cultural, and historical non-profits. For everyone who lives in Oregon, this is your annual reminder to consider giving to the Oregon Cultural Trust. You have until the end of this year to donate to a qualifying nonprofit and the Oregon Cultural Trust to receive a matching Oregon tax credit.
All you do is donate to any of Oregon’s arts, heritage, and humanities nonprofits which include forty in Hood River, Sherman, and Wasco counties (listed at www.culturaltrust.org). Then make a matching gift to the Cultural Trust to claim your contribution to the Cultural Trust as a tax credit – which means your donation to the Cultural Trust won’t cost you a thing! The Oregon Cultural Trust supports local communities by funding county Cultural Trust Coalitions that annually distribute grants to area schools and non-profits.
Brain Tease: Another anagram puzzle where a word or phrase is made by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase. Each phrase below is an anagram of the thing it describes. For example, Dirty Room the answer is Dormitory.
- A Rope Ends It; 2. Here Come Dots; 3. Cash Lost in ’em; 4. Alas! No More Z’s
You may have downsized, or at least tried, and offered your treasured family China or silverware to your children, and received a polite “No Thank you” or “Are you kidding?”
But as we age there are a few things we would like to keep around. For the next question of your Soul Portrait, “What do you want in your surroundings?”
The NBC television show that featured concealed cameras filming regular people in unusual situations was Candid Camera.”
I received correct answers from Pat Kelly, Steven Woolpert, Nancy Higgins, Jay Waterbury, Rebecca Abrams, Judy Kiser, Lana Tepfer, Dave Lutgens, Donna Mollet, Kim Birge, Eva Summers, Rhonda Spies, Craig Terry, Keith and Marlene Clymer, Bruce Johnson, Deborah Medina, Mike Monroe, Barb Weiford, Ken Jernstedt, and Marny Weting this week’s winner of a quilt raffle ticket.
In the popular animated television special A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving released in 1973, Peppermint Patty invites herself to Charlie Brown’s grandmother’s Thanksgiving dinner, so Linus suggests they also have a Thanksgiving dinner at home.
For this week’s “Remember When” question, what was one of the five items prepared for their Thanksgiving feast at home? (You don’t have to know all of them!) Email your answer to mcseniorcenter@gmail.com, leave a message at 541-296-4788, or send it with the opening football gag with Charlie Brown and Lucy.
Well, it’s been another week, trying to remember, did I just add three or was it four tablespoons of sugar? Until we meet again, as my old friend Sophocles once said, “Old age and the passage of time teach all things.”
“Everything will be OK in the end – and if it’s not OK, it’s not the end.” The movie Slumdog Millionaire.
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