However you are celebrating Thanksgiving this year, Cheryl and I would like to wish you and your beloved a safe holiday filled with gratitude, generosity, hospitality, and community. Thanksgiving has always been a challenging holiday. It has been marred by false, troubling stories about the colonization of this country and our treatment of the indigenous people. It has been co-opted over time by those who would have it be a day celebrated with gluttony and consumerism. But– these stories and practices have little to do with the core principles celebrated by Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, at its heart is about Giving Thanks. Giving and Thanks. Generosity and Gratitude. It is a celebration of the harvest and the bounty of the earth. It is a reminder that we all depend on one another. The Thanksgiving meal usually involves guests at our table (the reason for the UUSC’s Guests at Your Table program) and offering those without a share of what you have. This year, many of us (I hope) are choosing to stay home, choosing not to gather in person with our family and friends. But we can still participate in the spiritual practices of Gratitude and Generosity. Take a moment this holiday to give thanks for those things, large and small, that are blessings in your life. Take some time to let those you love how much you appreciate them. And if you can, look for some way to to share what you have with others who have considerably less.
Cheryl and I will be celebrating at home– but we will be Zooming with Cheryl’s father, Ben. (See the note about Zoom in this e-blast.) We will share a meal together– a 1,000 miles apart. We will begin the meal with a prayer of gratitude– each of us naming those people and those things they are thankful for. My prayer will include all of you– for I am most grateful you have given me this chance to serve as your Interim Minister this year. I am grateful for all those who continue the ministries of UUC– ministries of maintaining, supporting, planning, connecting, caring, and all the things we do to keep this community together and living it’s principles. I will also speak my deep thanks for our health and yours– along with the fervent hope that it will continue. After the prayers, after the meal, we will play games. There will be laugher and joy– and I’m grateful for that, as well. On Friday, Cheryl and I will call others we are grateful for and we will spend some time donating money to causes and charities we hold dear.
May your Thanksgiving holiday be a rewarding, inspiring, centering celebration for you and all those you call your own.
With Gratitude and Love,
Rev. Craig Schwalenberg
