11.21.12

I have spent the last few days, thanking and rejecting all offers to spend Thanksgiving with anyone. My desire was to go serve food and then just spend the remaining "alone" time in a reflection time.  Many people were persistent and did NOT understand my reasons.  It is not because of depression or feeling sorry for myself... Sometimes a person just needs to be alone to reflect... These past few weeks especially I have seen many things and have suppressed many feelings over it.
I spent the morning with one of the greatest women I know and listened to her teach 8th graders healthy relationships, proper ways to break up and helping with the reactions.  She said something that I will never forget.... Think of a person working with a hammer, they slam the hammer on their thumb... they spend the next 24-48 hours giving all the attention to one finger.. there are 9 other fingers but instead we harp on the negativity.  I have been trying to show my gratitude rather then dwell on the negativity.
When you think about giving thanks, how often do you do it? I started this blog months ago, to show my daily gratitude of all things, good, bad and the ugly.  Tonight I attended my first Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service.  To see so many men, women, children and the Manasquan Ministerium from many local churches join together to "......Be thankful on to Him, and Bless His Name." -Psalm 100:4
To hear each take turns and show their different styles brought many of us to chills and tears.  Perhaps one of the greatest explanations of why we go through struggles and destruction such as Sandy has to do with making bread. Yes, think hard about how you make bread... if you do not know.. I would tell you to contact Rev. Phiny Williams... because she had an entire church full- mesmerized.  Her explanation of how we get thrown into a bowl with others that we may not like then our lives get stirred up, then when things start to calm down we have the yeast added in (things happen, Sandy) and then we go through Needing (struggles) and then "rise up" then get punched back down... and then we bend more so the next set of needing isn't too rough (and this does not end if you are a croissant or a roll) then we figure out the entire time the oven has been preheating and then we go into the fire.  We cannot get out of the fire until we are done.  The point to all of this.. God has a plan for us.. As Pastor Mary told me, "The sign of God is that we will be led where we did not plan to go".   Yes, we need to be thankful for everything even the flooding water, the strong winds, and the loss of electricity... these all are part of the process... I am NOT saying GOD did this.. I am simply saying there is a plan for each of us and we need to be thankful for we are here another day and we will "rise up" through the heat and become a bread for our neighbors to enjoy...