When I think about vacation, I get giddy! I love vacay - a time to kick back, relax, and be with loved ones.

Travel without heavy items is key for me. I generally travel light for both business and pleasure, with just a carry on. That's it for the spiritual journey as well. When I recreate, renew and meditate I am in a place of renewing spirit as well as body and mind.

I am discovering the benefits of the journey in which I don't have to carry much, because God carries me. How about you? 

I was at prep school when I heard about the assasination of Martin Luther King, Jr. The news hit me hard then, and still does. Here is someone whose life embodies that which is so much part of the life of Christ: justice, freedom, and peace. Some 44 years later, I am a changed woman in many ways - what has remained a constant in my own life is desire for my children to inherit a world in which they will find themselves regarded and honored for all they are

As a young mother of bi-racial adoptive children, I wanted to give them and pass on to them their inherent worth as children of God. No matter what color their skin or eyes, no matter what abilities or strengths or weaknesses, this is their true identity.

My kids have been able to weather the storms of their life all right, and they have grown into adults who can navigate the world independently. Thank God, they have built lives for themselves and I am proud of them

The legacy for me is that I have been able to bring them up in this world and that there have been more times than not when they have been able to be , as King dreamt, " judged on the content of their character not on the color of their skin." They have been able to withstand the world's assessment of them and created their own.

Each year, I find new Christmas blessings are mine. This year, the time apart for Advent retreat allowed a blessing to flow in my soul. The rythmn of the Christmas tea, the women's Christmas Dinner,  the Christmas pageant by the Sunday School, and Christmas Eve services as well provide new blessings for me in this new parish. God opens the way for discovery of riches of blessings over and over at this holy season.

May this Christmas be one in which you, too, discover the ways in which God comes down to earth, bringing particularly wondrous blessings as we receive them and give them back in our lives at this holy season!

It's all in the attitude, isn't it? In the midst of shopping at this busy time, I came across a cashier who had attitude. She smiled at me, made eye contact and even asked if I found what I needed. (The answer was yes!)

At the conclusion of the sale, she asked me if I would like to donate an item (a toy, etc.) for a needy child. 

What a way to show Advent attitude - in God's love shown in a smile, in the way that God meets us eye to eye and heart to heart, and in service to others in God's world.

I'm wondering how you're doing in the Advent attitude department - as you wait with expectant heart?

I am thankful this year for many things - among them, a new place to call home, a new parish to serve, a new community to embrace since I sat around a Thanksgiving table last year.

What seems very sweet indeed are memories of Thanksgiving pasts, when I would sit at the table and watch with wide eyes as Dad carved the turkey - and my brother Scott would have a few lessons in the carving process. Mom would smile into the camera (back then, 8mm instead of vidcam, thank you very much!) and the bounty would be placed on the table. My fav would be the marvelous stuffing, Grandma Skove's recipe - and oh the joy of that time in the festivities when we would get out the wishbone and pull on it. Some Brits call the wishbone "the merrythought." The intergenerational patter would bring smiles, laughter and stories galore. Although my parents and grandparents are no longer living, thoughts prevail of the times which bind.

I think that is quite cool. For Thanksgiving, 'merrythoughts' of one another in the love of God are always in order - and how blessed I feel to be able to embrace the thoughts of loved ones, both living and those with God eternally. 

I would ask God's blessings on those celebrating Thanksgiving - and to all , merry thoughts from the heart which gives thanks!