good

Well, it's officially Thanksgiving. So, happy day. I hope you have somewhere to feast. Although we're not able to go home this year, we do -- we're going over to Candice and Bryan's to have dinner with them and C's parents (and bringing some food, including this cranberry-apple-bourbon pie). I'm so grateful to have good people to spend the day with -- and if I know them, which I do, there will also be good food and good wine...

Speaking of good food, I got this email from Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB, the other day. She's one of my favorite Catholic writers, in part because her writing and ideas are accessible, and also because she sees the value in other faiths, which, as you probably know, is very important to me (and if not, you do now!). This time, she wrote about the value of feasts. Here a few of my favorites among her "10 Thanksgiving Thoughts."

• It's important to dot our lives with unscheduled as well as scheduled feast days. That way we remember that we are able to make joy as well as to expect it...
• A Jewish proverb teaches us: "Worries go down better with soup." Treating food as a sacrament rather than a necessity reminds us that, in the end, there is always more good in life than bad. The trick is to notice it.
• To love good food is a measure of our love of life. Food preparation teaches us to do everything we can to make life palatable, spicy, comforting, full of love.
• One purpose of feasting is to get back in touch with the earth that sustains us, to glorify the God that made it, and to pledge ourselves to save the land that grows our food.
• In this country, we are conditioned to think that taking time to eat together, to make a meal an event rather than an act, takes time from the important things in life. That may be exactly why we are confused now about what the important things in life really are...
• To be feasted is to live outrageously.

To read the rest of Sr. Joan's thoughts on feasting, click here.

I thank God that I can even think about feasting, something some can't even dare to hope for. I pray that God will use me as an instrument to give others the opportunity to experience this right (not privilege) as well.

Happy Thanksgiving, wherever you are.