So recently well looking around the internet, I stumbled on a reference to the book "Stone Soup." I loved that book as a kid - the concept of two men - strangers - in a town making soup with nothing but water and stone and yet after each encounter with the towns people they manage to get a new ingredient. And Voila! They have just made an amazing soup and more importantly a soup that can be shared and feed the rest of the towns people.
These two men could have gone hunger that night. Those two men could've been con-artist and after cleverly getting the ingredients taken the soup to go - but NOPE...instead they fed the whole of the village. Everyone feasted and no one went hunger.
What a great reminder for us on Thanksgiving - that it was in celebration of the Native Americas sharing with our ancestors food so that the winter wasn't as harsh. Thanksgiving isn't just about our blessings and remembering them but it is about sharing - sharing our blessings, sharing our love, sharing our time. Thanksgiving is about feast in joy and hopes that for one night, one day, everyone can be feed.
As a teenager, my mom, sister and I lived far away from family and so we "made" family each thanksgiving. Finding new and different people to invite to our table. Inviting random strangers, foreigners in this country and displaced people who like us lived far from family. You never knew who was coming, you never knew if food would be done on time, but you always knew that for one night we could feast and have fellowship together a group of strangers. And that is what thanksgiving is about...
