Remembering my mother, 30 years later

© 2023 by Christy K Robinson

On Jan. 4-5, 1993, I spent the entire night in my mom's ICU room, holding her hand and reading the Bible to her as she lay in a coma. My dad had kissed her goodbye and gone home, and my brother was living two hours away, with a young family and a driving route that took him out of town. So it was down to me.

She'd nearly died 10 months before, and recovered. She said she'd heard me reading the Bible to her then, even in her coma, and it was precious to her, so I brought my Bible with me this time and did the same thing.

It was a very intimate time, just mother and daughter at the end of one life before she began another. She saw me take my first breath, and I saw her take her last. I won't describe my thoughts then, but it wasn't the same sort of grief as when my dad died, far away, 19 years later. I still miss my mother, 30 years later, but there's so much of her in me, both in my DNA, and in who I am at my core, that there's been a reconciliation of what was and what is.

There's so much of her in me, both in my DNA, 

and in who I am at my core, 

that there's been a reconciliation 

of what was and what is

Though she still breathed another six hours, I believe her spirit left her a little after 4:00am. Something so profound took place then, that I looked up at her monitors to see if she'd awakened. But nothing had changed physically. Though I continued to hold her hand and watched her take breaths, she was no longer with me. And I was comforted anyway because I knew she was no longer in pain, and was where she wanted to be.

I thought I was alone there, waiting for all signs to cease before I went home and called my dad and brother. But about 7:30, my friend, Dr. Keith Mack, came on duty and learned I was there. He came into the room and wrapped me in his arms. What a dear thing to do. It was no coincidence. God knew what I needed and his timing was flawless.

I remember with love, Judith Anson Robinson, 1937-1993.

******* 

Christy K Robinson is author of these books (click the colored title):  

We Shall Be Changed (2010)

Mary Dyer Illuminated Vol. 1 (2013)  

Mary Dyer: For Such a Time as This Vol. 2 (2014)

The Dyers of London, Boston, & Newport Vol. 3 (2014)  

Effigy Hunter (2015)  

Anne Marbury Hutchinson: American Founding Mother (2018)

And of these sites:  

Discovering Love  (inspiration and service)

Rooting for Ancestors  (history and genealogy)

William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th century culture and history of England and New England)

Editornado [ed•i•tohr•NAY•doh] (Words. Communications. Book reviews. Cartoons.)

Mothers Day for those who never gave birth

©2022 Christy K Robinson

It was my second Sunday as pianist at a Baptist church. 

I was wished a Happy Mothers Day several times, and presented with a carnation, which I accepted as the mother of rescue pets, the teacher of hundreds, the aunt of three, the cook and server to refugees and their precious children, the supporter of the abused, and various other roles. Some mother's child (young or adult) has my plasma and platelets strengthening them this week. 

My point is, men and women who haven't given birth can at times take on needed roles to support others in love. 

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL.

Shower the People--Make Love Reign

© 2022 Christy K Robinson 

I've loved James Taylor's music for--yikes--more than 50 years now, and every performance is still fresh. Many of the songs he's written are wise and kind and humorous, and I imagine that they come from the heart of a human who both believes his lyrics, and practices them. 

That we live in a world of 

• have and have-not, 
• respectful and rude, 
• those working for justice and those laughing because they have Teflon impunity,
• kindness and greed,
• mercy and vindictiveness,
• desperate people escaping their ancestral homes because of war or narcotics cartels but being met with hatred, violence--and indifference,
• selfishness about the "right" not to take the easiest and cost-free vaccines so all people can go back to relative health and safety or even attend religious services,

means that we who identify with being godly (no matter what our religion or denomination is) must not only speak our words of love, justice, hospitality, kindness and mercy, we must put them into action. 

If one of you tells him, “Go in peace; stay warm and well fed,” but does not provide for his physical needs, what good is that? So too, faith by itself, if it does not result in action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. James 2:16-18

Photo and article: 
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/helping_others_can_help_you_feel_better_during_the_pandemic

"Thoughts and prayers" has become a cliche' because those saying it are substituting a meaningless phrase for meaningful action. Does this 🙏 emoji, repeated numerous times, have meaning? 

From ancient prophets, and Buddha, and Jesus, we have learned that doing our beliefs is what's important, not thinking them or discussing them endlessly. 

Look at all the action verbs here! Do to others what you would have them do to you. Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God. Love your neighbor as yourself. Visit the imprisoned and sick (care for them, in other words). Feed the hungry and give them a drink. Take care of widows and orphans. Don't disrespect, kill, steal, lie, or cheat others. Treat the alien better than your own family. Work, so you can help others instead of stealing from them. Whoever believes will do the work Jesus is doing. 

This is not a religion of works of trying to be perfect, that denies grace. This is "work" that sometimes breaks rules or societal expectations, but brings healing, comfort, joy, relief, safety, and uplift to strangers, along with the unexpected grace of friendship and fun with the other people in your service, outreach, or ministry. 

A few days ago, I found a post on social media that was composed to match the tone of the Prayer of St Francis of Assisi ("Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace..."). This one takes a different, parallel path. 

Lord, make me a channel of disturbance.

Where there is apathy, let me provoke; 

Where there is compliance, let me bring questioning;

Where there is silence, let me be a voice; 

Where there is too much comfort and too little action, grant disruption; 

Where there are doors closed and hearts locked, grant the willingness to listen;

When laws dictate and pain is overlooked...

When tradition speaks louder than need... 

Grant that I may seek rather to do justice than to talk about it;

Disturb us, o Lord. 

To be with, as well as for, the alienated; 

To love the unloveable as well as the unlovely; 

Lord, make me a channel of disturbance.   (author unknown)

Why did I start this article with a James Taylor reference? So you can be reminded of this part of the song: 

Just shower the people you love with love
Show them the way that you feel
Things are gonna work out fine
If you only will
Do as I say
Shower the people you love with love
Show them the way that you feel
Things are gonna be much better

If you only will

Don't only shower the people you love (though it's a worthy start), but shower people you don't even know. Shower the hungry. Shower the unloveable or the people who have hurt you. Shower the "other." Shower the helpless or the people living out of a shopping cart. Shower the refugee. 

Let it rain. Make love reign. 

It will come back to you, I promise.

Shower the People (lyrics embedded on video)

*****

Christy K Robinson is author of these books (click a highlighted title):

We Shall Be Changed (2010)

Mary Dyer Illuminated Vol. 1 (2013)  

Mary Dyer: For Such a Time as This Vol. 2 (2014)

The Dyers of London, Boston, & Newport Vol. 3 (2014)  

Effigy Hunter (2015)  

Anne Marbury Hutchinson: American Founding Mother (2018)

And of these sites:  

Discovering Love  (inspiration and service)

Rooting for Ancestors  (history and genealogy)

William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th century culture and history of England and New England)

Editornado [ed•i•tohr•NAY•doh] (Words. Communications. Book reviews. Cartoons.)

Bethlehem manger

© 2020 Christy K Robinson

For hundreds of years, religious art has portrayed the manger, an animal feeding trough, as a wooden structure, a piece of furniture in a stable. They showed the stable as a ramshackle building or a cave. But the place where Mary laid her newborn baby may have been the ground floor of a two-story house,  and the manger would probably have been a hollowed-out dip in the ground where animal feed was served. The New Testament uses the word katalouma, or family guest quarters, as opposed to the word for a hotel accommodation, pandocheion, where the Good Samaritan took the beat-up traveler to recuperate. 

Excavation team at Tall al-Umayri, Jordan, in 2002, perched on the 
ancient walls of a four-room house. 

When I worked as a volunteer on an archaeological site near Amman, Jordan in 2002, one of the buildings our team had excavated and rebuilt over several seasons was a house. The occupants of the house would have slept on the upper floor. Below them, there was storage for food, and a hearth for cooking. The other part of the ground floor was a stable that opened out to a yard with a fence to keep a few sheep or goats safely inside the enclosure.

When Joseph and Mary entered the town of Bethlehem to take part in the census, Joseph would probably have gone to ask cousins who could house them for the nights and days they had to be there to register--and for Mary to give birth in the township Joseph's clan had lived in for a thousand years. But other cousins had arrived earlier, and the homes were bursting at the seams. It's likely that one of Joseph's relatives told him he could camp in the guest quarters also used as an animals' dwelling under a house. The Middle Eastern hospitality ethic would never have turned away a stranger or a family member. They'd have offered housing and food. Mary would have had women to help her give birth.

Was the house located within the walls of the town of Bethlehem, or was it a farm nearby? If the latter, it would be more accessible to the shepherds who had been told to look for the newborn baby. 

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 

Shepherds were the bluest of blue collar workers in the Middle East. The humble. The lowly. The people least likely to be invited to the nursery of the Messiah that had been promised for two thousand years. They were not required to crawl into a palace in the presence of King Herod or the Emperor Augustus. They were told to look in or near the small town of Bethlehem for a newborn baby in the feeding trough of the animals they herded and watched over: sheep and goats. That would have been a relief, after seeing a large group of bright, other-worldly beings! Seeing a helpless baby in a manger would have been an immediate slice of "peace on earth" to the shepherds.

Run, Shepherds, run where Bethl’em blest appears,

We bring the best of news, be not dismayed:

A Saviour there is born, more old than years

Amidst Heaven’s rolling heights this earth who stayed;

In a poor cottage inned, a Virgin Maid,

A weakling did Him bear, who all upbears,

There is He poorly swaddled, in a manger laid

To whom too narrow swaddlings are our spheres:

Run, Shepherds, run, and solemnize His birth.

This is that night−no, day, grown great with bliss,

In which the power of Satan broken is;

In Heaven be glory, peace unto the Earth,

Thus singing through the air the angels swam,

A cope of stars re-echoed the same.

William Drummond

from Flowres of Sion

William Drummond (13 December 1585 – 4 December 1649), called "of Hawthornden", was a Scottish poet.

*****

Christy K Robinson is author of these books (click the colored title):  

We Shall Be Changed (2010)

Mary Dyer Illuminated Vol. 1 (2013)  

Mary Dyer: For Such a Time as This Vol. 2 (2014)

The Dyers of London, Boston, & Newport Vol. 3 (2014)  

Effigy Hunter (2015)  

Anne Marbury Hutchinson: American Founding Mother (2018)

And of these sites:  

Discovering Love  (inspiration and service)

Rooting for Ancestors  (history and genealogy)

William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th century culture and history of England and New England)

Editornado [ed•i•tohr•NAY•doh] (Words. Communications. Book reviews. Cartoons.)

The Light

© 2018 Christy K Robinson

Early Quakers like Mary Barrett Dyer, John Copeland, Christopher Holder, Humphrey Norton, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson referred to their religious experience of Christ in their hearts as The Light.

They understood the words of Jesus, that while he was in the world, he was “the Light of the world.” (John 9:5)

But Jesus also said, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16)

George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, wrote from prison on 13 August 1656, “Now our Friends being come to this light which comes from Christ, and having received power from him by whom all things were created, to whom all power in heaven and earth is given, who is the wisdom of God; we have received wisdom and power from him, by which the Lord does give us to know how to use and order the creatures to the glory of him, the creator of all things.”

Back in America, Mary Dyer wrote to the General Court at Boston in 1659: “Search with the light of Christ in you and it will show you … as it hath done me and many more.”

Fragment from Mary Dyer's letter to the General Court in 1659.

“Turn inward to Christ the light, which shows you the secrets of your hearts, and the deeds that are not good. Therefore, while you have the light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of the light,” wrote Copeland, Holder, and Doudney from the Boston prison in 1657.  

“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it... The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.” (John 1:4, 5, 9 NIV)

Because Mary Dyer and others lived in such dark times of religious persecution even unto death, the Light that was real and tangible to them—was life itself. It was light in their mortal lives, even in prison suffering from whippings and unheated, unlit winter. And it was a light shining from the eternal life that has been promised to the children of God.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. For those who lived in a land of deep shadows— light! sunbursts of light! You repopulated the nation, you expanded its joy. Oh, they’re so glad in your presence! Festival joy! The joy of a great celebration, sharing rich gifts and warm greetings. The abuse of oppressors and cruelty of tyrants— all their whips and cudgels and curses— Is gone, done away with, a deliverance as surprising and sudden as Gideon’s old victory over Midian. The boots of all those invading troops, along with their shirts soaked with innocent blood, Will be piled in a heap and burned, a fire that will burn for days! For a child has been born—for us! the gift of a son—for us!  (Isaiah 9:6 The Message paraphrase) 

Though Quakers, Puritans, Baptists, and other religious groups of the time did not celebrate winter solstice or Christmas, they did treasure the Light in their lives and desired above all things to share that Light.

I hope that you will store these things in your heart, as Mary Dyer and her Friends did, and let God, Yahweh, Jesus, the Universe, or Higher Power—whatever you choose to label it—have a chance with you. Don’t remain in darkness or deep shadows: step out into Light.

May the Light burst forth in your life and bring you peace, kindness, mercy, grace, and compassion.

Happy holy-days! 

Christy K Robinson is author of these books (click the colored title): 

We Shall Be Changed (2010)

Mary Dyer Illuminated Vol. 1 (2013)  

Mary Dyer: For Such a Time as This Vol. 2 (2014)

The Dyers of London, Boston, & Newport Vol. 3 (2014)  

Effigy Hunter (2015)  

Anne Marbury Hutchinson: American Founding Mother (2018)

And of these sites:  

Discovering Love  (inspiration and service)

Rooting for Ancestors  (history and genealogy)

William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th century culture and history of England and New England)

Editornado [ed•i•tohr•NAY•doh] (Words. Communications. Book reviews. Cartoons.)

You Are My Only One

©  2020 Christy K Robinson 
This song has been one of my favorites for 35 years. It strikes me that it doesn't have to be a love song to "Only One" person, but a love song to every friend, every relative, every work associate, every church brother or sister, every person in your circle.

Most people, if they're not psychologically damaged, understand that our capacity to love stretches and grows. We're not given a fixed amount of love to apportion to partner or child or parent or pets; we add more space in our hearts as we grow into relationships. We love our dad with all our hearts, and we love our partner with all our hearts, and we love our dog or cat with all our hearts. It's not a lie or exaggeration to love a few or love many, with fullness of commitment, emotion, friendship, loyalty, and passion.

Everyone, because of their individual qualities or quirks, can be your "only one" if you're willing to open your heart.

Do what you can with what you have

©  2020 Christy K Robinson

Another piano video, Love Medley, is here:
<https://www.facebook.com/christy.k.robinson/videos/10221806668096498/>
Hope you are blessed by the music.

COVID-19 home quarantine isn't for the faint of heart, especially if you live alone. Even more so when you love and miss the fellowship of like-minded people at your house of worship. I play keyboards for several churches, and while those churches are closed to "flatten the curve" of new infections, I miss my colleagues and choir friends, my usual huggers, the people I respect, and the people who are wallflowers and need a kind word and handshake.

I've lost my business in the quarantine: teaching piano students, accompanying the choir or ladies' ensemble, playing the prelude before the service, playing the hymns or offertory. All gone. No income. The services I played for so joyfully for 51 years have become livestream or YouTube videos by the minister, a scripture reader, and the worship leader playing a guitar. The Holy Week cantata we were practicing is canceled, and Easter services will be watched on a computer screen.

As I watch the Facebook posts of my friends, many are lonely and sad that they're isolated in their apartment or house. I noticed that celebrities and pop or country stars have made videos for the fans when concerts were canceled because of crowds and quarantine. I figured I could do the same on my shoestring-budget. I strapped my phone into the tiny desktop tripod, dressed in nice clothes instead of my Apocalypse Nightie (I thought I invented the term, but apparently many people don't bother to get out of their jammies!), and started playing on Facebook Live. I told friends to play the video for themselves, or share with their loved ones.

Then a funny thing happened. People started commenting, while I was still playing, that they were comforted or soothed, that they'd started or ended their day (depending on their time zone around the world) with a blessing, or they'd replayed the piece again and again. Several have requested specific pieces. People who don't participate in organized religion wrote that the music is the only thing they missed about church. One friend sent me a donation through PayPal. Another, whose family members are sick and cannot be visited because of the infection risk, said I made her cry.

His Eye is on the Sparrow
 
Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.

“Let not your heart be troubled,” His tender word I hear,
And resting on His goodness, I lose my doubts and fears;
Though by the path He leadeth, but one step I may see;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.

Whenever I am tempted, whenever clouds arise,
When songs give place to sighing, when hope within me dies,
I draw the closer to Him, from care He sets me free;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.
***** ***** *****

I'm reminded of the President Teddy Roosevelt quotation in this graphic. I have little money, but I can do what I can do. Playing the piano, I can do.

I'm not in business now. God has been faithful and he has provided for me before. He will again. His eye is on this sparrow.

 His Eye is on the Sparrow, played by Christy Robinson

 

 

For the entire playlist, which I will add to as time goes by, visit:
 https://bit.ly/ChristysPianoPlaylist

*****

Christy K Robinson is author of these books (click the colored title): 

We Shall Be Changed (2010)

Mary Dyer Illuminated Vol. 1 (2013)  

Mary Dyer: For Such a Time as This Vol. 2 (2014)

The Dyers of London, Boston, & Newport Vol. 3 (2014)  

Effigy Hunter (2015)  

Anne Marbury Hutchinson: American Founding Mother (2018)

And of these sites:  

Discovering Love  (inspiration and service)

Rooting for Ancestors  (history and genealogy)

William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th century culture and history of England and New England)

Editornado [ed•i•tohr•NAY•doh] (Words. Communications. Book reviews. Cartoons.)

Of carousel stiffs, asses, and false prophets

© 2020 Christy K Robinson

After Trump, in an attempt to be a wartime President ahead of the 2020 election, assassinated the Iranian general, Solemani, the "prosperity gospel" televangelists are blowing the trumpets to carry the United States into another endless war, with countless deaths including women and children, families torn apart, and economic ruin for all but a handful of war profiteers. 

Trump and White

“Both Mike Pompeo [Secretary of State] and Mike Pence [Vice President] who have pushed Trump towards aggressive action towards Iran believe that there is a battle between good and evil that will end with ‘the Rapture’. A key belief of the evangelical Christian extremists is the establishment of a ‘greater Israel’ before the end of days,” according to the British website Church and State. 
According to spiritual shyster and Trump advisor Paula White, Trump will have a role in the final battle.
“God came to me last night and showed me a vision of Trump riding alongside Jesus on a horse made of gold and jewels,”
said White in Charisma, a fundie publication. “This means he will play a critical role in Armageddon as the United States stands alongside Israel in the battle against Islam.”  Source: The Biz News

There's your horse of gold and jewels. It only goes in circles.
Carousel ride, Ca. 1915 Carmel-Borrelli Jeweled Jumper, Outside row jumper.
Partial armor. Double scabbard war horse. Over 400 jewels. $15,900.

The ONLY time Jesus rode instead of walked in his life, it was on a donkey foal, six days before his crucifixion. Which ride was better? The fake-jeweled wooden one that goes around in circles, or the humble, living one that took a Savior into the city where he would suffer and die to provide eternal life for his friends? 

When I visited the ancient city of Petra in southern Jordan, Bedouin boys
offered me donkey transport, begging me to hire them.
"Taxi, Madame?" was their repeated plea.

Article from Sojournors: 

At King Jesus International Ministry, several prosperity gospel pastors and leaders hosted the president for a political rally and prayed publicly on stage beforehand. After the prosperity pastors laid their hands on Trump in prayer and political support, the president of the United States openly said this: “I really do believe that God is on our side. I believe that. I believe that ... or there would have been no way we could have won, right? People said, how do you win? You don't have the media, you have so many things against you, and we win. So, there has to be something, has to be something."
Apparently, Trump does believe that. And, apparently, so do the “leaders” who were with Trump on stage or are part of the new evangelical coalition.

It is blasphemy for Donald Trump — or any political leader — to suggest that God is on his side or favors his candidacy or political party. That blasphemy must be named for what it is. To imply that Trump won his election because of divine intervention — as some of his court evangelicals have said — is to essentially bestow on Trump the divine right of kings, an idea that is antithetical to the principles upon which the United States was founded and to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It also shows again that Trump thinks of himself as a monarch, as so many of his words and actions prove.

Abraham Lincoln spoke words of wisdom that are as timely today as they have ever been: "Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right." Donald Trump and his supporters would like to believe that God is on his (or their) side. But every one of them must now ask, "Are we on God's side?” Are Trump’s statements and policies of racial bigotry and division on God’s side? Are his policies that dehumanize immigrants and separate migrant families at the border on God’s side? Is Trump’s lifelong demeaning, exploiting, and betrayal of women, including his own three wives, on God’s side?
Source: article by Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, 16 January 2020.

Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, explained the danger of false shepherds or false prophets--and their fate.

Matt. 7:15-20 “Watch out for false prophets! They dress up like sheep, but inside they are wolves who have come to attack you. You can tell what they are by what they do. No one picks grapes or figs from thornbushes. A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. Every tree that produces bad fruit will be chopped down and burned. You can tell who the false prophets are by their deeds."

*****

Christy K Robinson is author of these books (click the colored title):

We Shall Be Changed (2010)

Mary Dyer Illuminated Vol. 1 (2013)  

Mary Dyer: For Such a Time as This Vol. 2 (2014)

The Dyers of London, Boston, & Newport Vol. 3 (2014)  

Effigy Hunter (2015)  

Anne Marbury Hutchinson: American Founding Mother (2018)

And of these sites:  

Discovering Love  (inspiration and service)

Rooting for Ancestors  (history and genealogy)

William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th century culture and history of England and New England)

Editornado [ed•i•tohr•NAY•doh] (Words. Communications. Book reviews. Cartoons.)

Thanks-sharing

© 2019 Christy K Robinson

May this season bring all the things that you not only receive from others, 

but that you have the power to share: 

love, health, peace, joy, prosperity.

You can share:
a compliment to a stranger, 
listening without advising,
giving from your abundance, 
giving your last two cents, 
writing a business letter for a friend,
lending your muscles, 
donating goods to charity,
helping the helpless, 
carrying large items in your pickup truck, 
donating blood if you're healthy,
babysitting kids (no charge) so a single parent can have free time,
preparing food for immigrants, 
driving a friend to a medical appointment,
volunteering at your house of worship,
serving at a homeless shelter, 
pulling weeds or babysitting pets... 

We think of Thanksgiving, even more than Christmas or Easter, as a day for families. More people travel to be with family on Thanksgiving than any other holiday.

You have traditions, whether the specific foods you eat (no giblets--   ack!) on china or paper plates, hiking a scenic trail, watching sports, going camping and RV-ing at the sand dunes, holding someone's new baby, going through the newspaper ads for Black Friday deals, learning to make your grandmother's best recipe... and especially, counting your blessings and saying out loud what you're grateful for.

ThanksGIVING is a way of life, far more than saying words about being grateful for your abundance, but paying forward some kindness and mercy to both loved ones and strangers. Thanksgiving is so much better when we're thanks-sharing.

"It is wired within us that when we care and nurture it affects our physiology in a very positive way," says neuroscientist James Doty. "That is the reward for caring."  https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/12/17/460030338/be-kind-unwind-how-helping-others-can-help-keep-stress-in-check

One of many things I'm grateful for, is friends who treat me, a singleton, as family. You've come to my place or invited me to yours, not only on the Thanksgiving holiday, but throughout the year. I thank you, and I thank God for putting us in each others' lives.

*****

Want some Thanksgiving lore and humor to share at this year's celebrations? 

Check out one of my history blogs at

 https://marybarrettdyer.blogspot.com/2015/11/early-colonial-thanksgiving-customs-and.html

*****

Christy K Robinson is author of these books (click the colored title):

We Shall Be Changed (2010)

Mary Dyer Illuminated Vol. 1 (2013)  

Mary Dyer: For Such a Time as This Vol. 2 (2014)

The Dyers of London, Boston, & Newport Vol. 3 (2014)  

Effigy Hunter (2015)  

Anne Marbury Hutchinson: American Founding Mother (2018)

And of these sites:  

Discovering Love  (inspiration and service)

Rooting for Ancestors  (history and genealogy)

William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th century culture and history of England and New England)

Editornado [ed•i•tohr•NAY•doh] (Words. Communications. Book reviews. Cartoons.)