Thanksgiving Feast
Yesterday (Sunday) we held our big Thanksgiving feast at church, and filled every table to capacity. Eight members roasted turkeys at home and Hubby carved and carved while other members helped take in the casseroles and salads, cranberry sauce, dressings, gravy. The dessert table groaned, as usual. (My contributions were a large pan of gluten-free cornbread dressing plus a pan of GF walnut brownies for the dessert table.)
I'd been asked to decorate, and got two women to help me on Saturday afternoon, placing silk autumn leaves, sprinkled with gold glitter, on each table along with a scented candle, either gingerbread or pumpkin pie scent. My 'Martha Stewart' moment led me to spray assorted nuts in their shells with gold spray paint, and scatter them at each table center.
The room was all gold and glitter, fall leaves and gourds. The congregation members brought their families, and community members were invited as well. There was lots of laughter, much sharing, a great deal of thanks being expressed...one much-loved couple were happily sharing the news about their first grandchild on-the-way, a grandaughter actually. They cannot wait until March, when they can finally be grandparents.
All of this, and then this morning, on GMA, there was a story that brought me to tears. A farming couple in the midwest had invited local folks to come to their farm and 'glean' the crops that had been left in their fields after their harvest. They arranged transportation by pulling carts out to the fields, supplied plastic bags, and worked hard to make sure everything went well. They expected, at most, 1,000 people. Four thousand came.
The TV reporter filmed one older black gentleman who was delightedly scooping up large onions and putting them into a bag. Looking up, the man grinned and said very enthusiastically: "I just filled some bags with potatoes, and now, look, I'm getting these great onions! I'm gonna make a magnificent pot of potato soup, which is so healthy, and I'll have enough for days!"
The man was just so darned happy, to be given the chance to glean potatoes and onions.
Makes you stop and think. Yes, I have a frozen turkey thawing out for Thursday, and I'll make more cornbread dressing to go with some enormous sweet potatoes that were on sale in our market. There will just be the two of us this year, but I will think about that happy man, with his 'magnificent' potato soup, and give thanks. Somewhere in Matthew 25 it says: "for I was hungry and you gave Me food."
I'd been asked to decorate, and got two women to help me on Saturday afternoon, placing silk autumn leaves, sprinkled with gold glitter, on each table along with a scented candle, either gingerbread or pumpkin pie scent. My 'Martha Stewart' moment led me to spray assorted nuts in their shells with gold spray paint, and scatter them at each table center.
The room was all gold and glitter, fall leaves and gourds. The congregation members brought their families, and community members were invited as well. There was lots of laughter, much sharing, a great deal of thanks being expressed...one much-loved couple were happily sharing the news about their first grandchild on-the-way, a grandaughter actually. They cannot wait until March, when they can finally be grandparents.
All of this, and then this morning, on GMA, there was a story that brought me to tears. A farming couple in the midwest had invited local folks to come to their farm and 'glean' the crops that had been left in their fields after their harvest. They arranged transportation by pulling carts out to the fields, supplied plastic bags, and worked hard to make sure everything went well. They expected, at most, 1,000 people. Four thousand came.
The TV reporter filmed one older black gentleman who was delightedly scooping up large onions and putting them into a bag. Looking up, the man grinned and said very enthusiastically: "I just filled some bags with potatoes, and now, look, I'm getting these great onions! I'm gonna make a magnificent pot of potato soup, which is so healthy, and I'll have enough for days!"
The man was just so darned happy, to be given the chance to glean potatoes and onions.
Makes you stop and think. Yes, I have a frozen turkey thawing out for Thursday, and I'll make more cornbread dressing to go with some enormous sweet potatoes that were on sale in our market. There will just be the two of us this year, but I will think about that happy man, with his 'magnificent' potato soup, and give thanks. Somewhere in Matthew 25 it says: "for I was hungry and you gave Me food."
posted by Marion | 11:48 AM
3 Comments:
I thought GMA meant genetically modified agriculture but I don't see that in this story.
I feel like those people every time we pick wild apples. It's an affirmation that the earth provides and the ability to have food to eat is what makes us rich.
GMA stands for Good Morning America.I watch it every morning to get the news and other things I'm interested in. Before I retired, I'd have to get ready for work and leave while GMA was on the air (it's on 7 to 9 am) so it is a treat to me to be able to watch it while I eat my oatmeal and drink my coffee!
At Christmas Cantata choir practice tonight, our music director said she'd seen the segment about the fellow so grateful to have onions and potatoes to make soup on Headline News later in the day. We were glad they'd picked up on it; so many of us need to realize just how lucky we are. Point of fact: I made potato soup tonight before we went to practice.
Oh, what a wonderful story! America needs more people like that family.
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