Thanksgiving is only a week away! It seems so strange when summer bumps right up against snow and turkey. I was watching snow blow against a backdrop of bright gold and red leaves today. And I'm grateful for the firewood I had left over from last winter. It's a good time now to order your green wood, while (and if) you still have dry wood to mix with it. It's never too early to begin your search for your yule log.

I don't feel guilty about both dreading and looking forward to the labor involved in the creation of a huge Thanksgiving dinner. Over the years, I've learned that it helps to standardize the menu, the schedule of tasks, the preparation. Accept help! Assign tasks!

Today, I am thinking of sharpening knives, collecting the vessels for cooking and serving that are in storage every other week of the year and checking my lists and pantry. I have my turkey, which now hangs frozen on the back porch as it does every year while I make room in the fridge (but only when we get these cooooold night temps to keep it frozen).

It's a good time now for us to stop and to collect our thoughts, to focus on the mission and the meaning of our work; to remember, after all, that we are already so very blessed.

If you live without violence and if you live without hunger, you are among the most blessed minority of humans not only today, in this moment, but EVER in the history of this planet. Which still begs the question, "Why me?"

And if you know someone who suffers with violence, or with hunger, now is the time, today is the day, to step forward and to take action on their behalf, even if anonymously. If you don't know anyone who suffers violence or hunger, please consider finding a way to help those you don't know, for they surely exist. Sometimes closer than we think.

Love,
Sophie

SophieSeriously ...at... gmail dot com