End of the garden for fall...... thanksgiving coming!

It is the end of gardens in Nebraska now and days are getting shorter! Flowers are done blooming and we have brought all the plants indoors we want to try to SAVE. IT is a time for endings and new beginnings! It is a time for the golden sun on a pole to watch over the garden now till spring~

Now our thoughts turn to new beginnings with a new President elect with possibilities for HOPE and ending our wars! We celebrate our son in law coming home now from IRAQ a SECOND TIME and think of all those who have suffered trauma on both sides of these conflicts~

It seems like building SCHOOLS would be a much better solution as suggested in THREE CUPS OF TEA by Greg Mortenson~ And mostly we are glad that there are new beginnings now for loved ones coming home from WAR and into a more peaceful existence again ..... going back to school and readjusting to relationships and unwanted separations.

I have much to be thankful for as I start to think of Thanksgiving~ And mostly family, friends, groups that lend support along the endings and new beginnings -- like OPEN HEARTS and reconciling groups, reconciling friends, new NAP friends and folks how are HIV positive.

I am thankful for gatherings like tomorrow with other folks to figure out ways to help with those agonizing Waiting Lists now for folks on the margins and the need for RESPONDING -- those who have tested positive with HIV AIDS. Thanks for the folks who have tried to speak up about this quiet crisis in Central NE happening now with little notice. And finally listening to the stories being shared in concern and compassion.

Thanks for the NAP or Neb AIDS Project case workers who are trying to find emergency funds in churches, communities, collecting supplies to get people to end some of the waiting and to give HOPE ----- and looking for solutions by getting together, talking it through, finding out the discouraging facts of more clients than funding available ...... and not ignoring it anymore.

I think of the Alternative Gift Giving list I have been compiling today to stretch our thinking and holiday giving at the church..... and mostly I am thankful for new BEGINNINGS this Thanksgiving season ---- even with the GARDEN ending -- and the joy of having loved ones return from far away again and wars that need to CEASE and the HIV Wars that need to cease as well ---- and finding ways to listen to our stories, enjoy each other and try to give help to those in NEED this thanksgiving time~