With a Thankful Heart

This weekend, Canadians are celebrating Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving in Canada is a celebration of the harvest, which comes earlier in Canada than in the US because we are farther North.

I wanted to share this beautiful harvest sermon, from the 17th century. I think the message is as relevent today as it was all those years ago. It's the kind of values I was raised with, growing up on the Canadian prairies where people knew their neighbours and everyone relied on one another. These are the roots that serve me well.

"Please be gentle with yourself and others.
We are all children of chance
And none can say why some fields blossom
While others lay brown beneath the harvest sun.
Take hope that your season will come.
Share the joy of those whose season is at hand.
Care for those around you.
Look past your differences.
Their dreams are no less than yours,
Their choices in life no more easily made.
And give.
Give in any way you can.
Give in every way you can.
Give whatever you possess.
Give from your heart.
To give is to love.
To withhold is to wither.
Care less for the size of your harvest
than for how it is shared,
And your life will have meaning
And your heart will have peace."

Words to live by. I am deeply thankful for my life, for my freedom, for my friends and family. As I sit down to the table to break bread tomorrow evening with family and friends, I will be thinking of all the men and women serving our country and away from their own families at this special time of year. May they be kept from harm and we all have peace.

Happy Thanksgiving!