Canadian Thanksgiving is ending

We know there is power in being thankful.  We know that gratitude blesses us back in an even better quality of abundance.  I don't understand it all but all the world's wisdom traditions acknowledge that we are better beings if we are grateful for what we have, not what we might want.  So go ahead and say Thank God, or Alleluia or whatever your words are to thank your Creator for your abundance.

Canadian Thanksgiving is a month earlier than in the US.  

I don't know if Britain even celebrates this holiday.  It is a cross between bringing in the harvest thankfulness and an ode to God and family.  When family gather and enjoy fellowship and food together they are in a HOLY PLACE.  That is not to negate the need to gather in a church but sometimes we don't honour our own Holy Places that we live in and reach out to the world from. 

I decided that on Sunday after church we would just bake a small pork roast and I tried a new recipe for garlic and rosemary roasted potatoes.  Old Man loves rosemary and we had a lovely little time alone for dinner as his cousin Rita, who was supposed to visit for the weekend, had to work pouring cement for sidewalks before the cold nights begin.  We have had minus 4 C.  so I am surprised there are still so many flowers still blooming close to the house.   

  I will be doing those decadent roasted potatoes again.  Maybe it was the fresh rosemary and fresh garlic and newly harvested Yukon Gold potatoes, but they sure were good.  I usually pass up potatoes (confession from an Irish woman) but these were just too good.  Mashed potatoes in restaurants these days are starting to taste like those flakes of glue we used in primary school that you mixed up yourself, (in the olden days).  Kids couldn't resist tasting it.

The weather was lovely for walks and folk were out all over the village walking babies or working up an appetite for the feast. But the sad thing is that I just heard on CBC that 1 million folk visited food banks in Canada last year.  We only have a population of 35 million.  The startling thing is that this is not an inner city urban thing anymore, and is spreading to the suburbs where there are few support systems in place.  We certainly have noticed at Soup's On each Friday that there are more elders visiting for lunch to help them get through the month.  It is free if they can't afford to donate, but is also a good, safe place to socialize. Any profits we make are voted back to the local food banks.  It is a win/win operation.  

Now I will post about my dead sister's lecturn making its first appearance at the Thanksgiving service yesterday.