FOR WHAT CAN WE BE THANKFUL?

FOR WHAT CAN WE BE THANKFUL?

I am thankful that our Lutheran church took a group to the International Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro NC--just an hour down the road--on Saturday July 18.  We know that the museum arose to document the civil disobedience of four black NC A&T students who refused to vacate a Whites Only lunch counter.  These freshmen, maybe 18 or 19 years old--teenagers--declined to be bound by Jim Crow laws that pretended that black people were "less than."  They knew what the Constitution offered and held our state to its promise.  They could have despaired of the country ever righting itself, but they did not.  Nor did they accept what they knew to be wrong. Those of us my age know this history as it unfolded.  It was a pivotal moment in the history of Civil Rights.  Black churches offered support to the students and served as the backbone of the civil rights movement and the change to come.  Too many white churches initially remained silent fearing loss of membership and financial contributions.  I suppose we could consider this trip a small act of resistance, honoring the truthful history of a shameful past.   

Our Durham County Bar held educational meetings at the Museum over the years.  I can be thankful as well to live and worship in a city as diverse as Durham NC where human rights and civil rights overlap with all the religions represented here.  

I can be thankful that our church sponsors an inter-denominational Grief Group where people of all faiths or none can find a community in which to navigate their grief over losses.  Many years ago my father and I were regular members of its predecessor group and found solace there.  Some might be grieving for a family member in jail, or a death caused by depression.  Never was there judgment.  Now our church members can also attend a monthly Sunday School class addressing the grief that many feel about the direction of our country under this regime.  We discuss politics and religion--democracy, Christian Nationalism, leadership, sin, activism, the gamut.  Never is there judgment.  I am thankful for this class as I believe all who attend are.  It is a safe place to grieve and speak out, for anyone.  

I am also be thankful that our church is hosting "Good Trouble Lives On:  Organize to promote fair and safe elections" on this Saturday, August 1 between 1-4 EDT.  When so many say that politics doesn't belong in church, hosting this event makes me proud.  It is a coalition of Engaged Defenders of Democracy, League of Women Voters and unions, training people to do voter education, registration and mobilization.  It is exactly what the SAVE America act is designed to prevent--voter education and participation.  Good Trouble, as we know, is the phrase used to remember the sainted John Lewis (1940-2020), who in 1965 led more than 600 protesters across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama to demonstrate the need for voting rights.  They--again, as we know--were met by violence.  

It is important to give thanks where we can.  From our monthly Sunday School class it is clear that ordinary Christians in ordinary towns like Durham--a combination blue collar/college town--are weighed down by this government.  Christian principles are seen by many as under siege.  Not so-called "Christian" Nationalism, but Simple principles, like "love your neighbor as yourself,"  or "Do Unto Others. . . ."  We can be thankful when our churches live by these principles.  

We can be thankful that this summer while rain falls and flowers bloom, while children play and elders guard their health, while we vacation or stay home, while many struggle to make ends meet and some do not, while others are escaping fire and flood zones, that we have our faith to guide us, one another to sustain us, and a sure answer to right vs wrong; for those of us who are Christian, in the Commandments, the Beatitudes, the Golden Rule and almost any verse in our Bible that we care to open to. For other faiths in their sacred scriptures or Holy Books.  Not only do these resources help us know what we should do, they give the strength and power to do it.  

Thanks be to my God and yours, 

Nina Naomi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REFRESH PART IV

Lots of us take road-trips this time of year.  🎶"Over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go . . . ."  I wonder if kids still learn this song.  I live in the woods so whoever visits this grandma's house comes past the meadow and through the trees. 

No, we don't have snow yet

Most of us moms and grand-moms have prepared more holiday dinners than we can count. Our church also hosts a Thanksgiving feast on the day itself and just a month later a Christmas meal.  Whoever wanders in has the best traditional dinner.

This year five members of our New Jersey family braved I-95 for Thanksgiving at our house.  It's a harrowing road-trip but for how early they leave.  They saw the sun rise somewhere over Maryland. Family from Florida flew in, amazingly without delay. 

Our own road-trip was to St. Louis and back to see relatives right before the holidays. We drove through North Carolina, Virginia, W. Virginia, across Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois and over the Mississippi River to get to our home town. Mobility issues, some memory loss, two marvelous children, one with special needs--concerns disappear in the joy of being together.  And of course we remember when everyone was worried about whether the two sides of the St. Louis Arch would meet, we're that old. 

St Louis Arch, 630 ft tall, 630 ft wide

All I am thinking about now is how I want this holiday season to be a refresh for everyone.  I'm sticking to making my best efforts to buy local.  Our town has some wonderful Christmas markets with makers who design unique gifts.  I have those marked on my calendar.  One year we found small fused glass mirrors that everyone still has hanging making their homes more beautiful.  My husband asked for a radio this year, totally retro.  When streaming and online go out, we can listen to the radio! 😊  We have in independent book shop that everybody likes. 

It's important, isn't it, that however big or small our Thanksgiving and Christmas are, however confined our expansive our life, that we are thankful to be alive, to be as healthy as ever we are, for family and friends even if remembered, or especially if remembered. From Thanksgiving we move right into Advent.  Tomorrow the first Advent Candle will be lit in churches around the world.  We begin our time of waiting for the eternally new birth of the Savior in whom we believe. 

Every year I look forward to this season of long nights and preparation. If I were even older and lived alone, I believe I would still feel Christ's love and the blessings of a very average life holding me gently aloft.  Wishing for you in a month that can be hurried, in a year when our government has made each of our lives more difficult, a time where peace and joy undergird your thoughts, even the hard ones.   

With much love, Nina Naomi 

 

 

 

YES, IT'S TIME TO GIVE THANKS

It's that time of year when everything is happening.  Thanksgiving is upon us.  I am thankful the celebration is at my house.  I am thankful that my granddaughter is helping me prepare.  Lots of chopping for the stuffing and the old-fashioned Golden Glow Jello salad from Grandma Edna's recipe box. Setting the table for eight this year, not that many.  I remember when it was more and we used two tables.  Or occasionally just me and my husband, and we travel.  Why not? 

Not that all is good.  One of our dear friends died last week.  You know how hard it is when someone you love dies.  We all know that.  You can't be alive and not know that.  We can't believe how fragile we all are.  We don't quite want life to go on as usual, it seems callous.  "Stop all the clocks...Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come," W. H. Auden wrote.  Then just now we got a call that my husband's college roommate is gravely ill.  I read a beautiful essay in the New York Times today by a woman who lost her teenage daughter Orli.  It hit home.  Tears are defining our week. 

And yet, eight people who are alive and well will be here on Thanksgiving.  We might have prayers, maybe silent, for others who aren't here and not doing so well.  But we will also have much for which to be thankful.  Our family, like yours, is full of love.  Our family, like yours, is coping.  This is the most wonderful of American holidays.  A day devoted entirely to giving thanks.  No other holiday is like that, not Christmas, not Easter, not Hannukah, not our birthdays or 4th of July.  Isn't it something--we don't give presents, we give thanks.  Our religion doesn't matter.  We just gather and enjoy food and each other.  

This year I am again thankful that my husband and I still have one another after so many years, and have not grown tired of our conversations, our playfulness, our needs; that our younger grandson decided to spend his summer with us; that our older grandson is graduating soon; that so much of the family is local and we see them often. 

I know the world is not this easy for many, for those who are the victims of war, for those who are poor, for those in harm's way.  But if that is not you, give thanks.  Give thanks and do for others.  Join the throngs who use Christmas as a giving time.  Live in the spirit of Christ by doing for others as you would have them do unto you.  

And if that is you, or has been you, give thanks anyway.  For what else is useful, helpful, consoling and comforting but to look for your blessings and give thanks?  Not one of us is without blessings.  Not one of us need despair.  Not one of us is not a child of God with the flutter of hope in their heart.  Not one.

Happy Thanksgiving, and the peace that passes all understanding be yours this day and tomorrow.  AMEN