Miss Edith at Windy Acres

For the past year or so I have attended services at Unitarian Universalist Church, which is not a church in the traditional Christian sense but a congregation that strives for inclusivity. As such, it disavows such concepts as the holy trinity.

For Thanksgiving Day, its pastor and her husband and child invited everyone who was without family to join them for a feast. Although Reverend Audette and her family are vegetarians, they found a church member willing to prepare and bring a roasted turkey. Others brought veggie casseroles, rolls or bread, and pies. Reverend Audette prepared a delicious broccoli and rice casserole. I myself roasted some of the blue potatoes and winter squash from my garden.

I'm told that the building where UU now resides used to be Mormon church. It is spacious and airy. I used to attend UU meditation sessions and now I participate in some of the social activism the congregation embraces. We gave thanks before our meal, bur really, I must remember to be thankful year round, not just on a day designated on the calendar as "Thanksgiving." Often we remember only in hindsight, during a time when things are bad, that we should have cherished those earlier periods when life hummed along. Often our anxieties focus on things to fret about. Now, when I'm in the grip of an anxiety attack--fretting about family disunion, or global warming, or people caught in a disaster--I try to remind myself: This (anxiety attack), too, will pass. When the mind is unclouded by worries, we have a chance of addressing anxiety-producing happenings in ways that might actually solve something.