Thanksgiving 2019

One Seed Juniper covered with berries for the wildlife.
Arroyo Hondo Preserve

Thanksgiving and our anniversary (we met 32 years ago on this day of giving

thanks) is happening "late" this year: on November 28. We honor one another on Thanksgiving each year in spite of the varying date each year. We are thankful that we both took up our individual friend's invitation to join a gathering at the late Helen Ramstad's home.

While pulling up our 30+ year roots in Northern California was by no means easy, we are ever so thankful we are not still living at MuRefuge in West Sonoma, California. Our friends and neighbors still living in the area were not only evacuated during the Kincade Wildfire but were without power since PG& E cut off electricity. Most people living in this area have wells and electricity is necessary for them to function. The nighttime temperatures dipped below freezing and most furnaces are powered also by electricity.  So all in all very primitive living and everyone is considering generators if they already do not have them plus installing solar panels, storing the electricity in batteries which have been much improved in the past twenty years.

Here's what the present steward of MuRefuge had to say about the evacuation: "the collective consciousness of 200,000 people experiencing the same drama is a truly interesting thing to experience - 'the new normal’ they say." Climate change is bringing more raging wildfires not only in California but throughout the West. "The new normal" seems to be a common phrase heard almost daily as erratic weather inundates Mother Earth.

Wide leaf Yucca in front of a local, typical reddish rock covered with beautiful lichen.
The Pinon Pine/Juniper Forest at the Arroyo Hondo Preserve
on the way from Santa Fe to Eldorado, NM, is one
of the most lush we have visited since our initial forays into
and now living in the high mountainous desert.

This year we will have our traditional Thanksgiving/Anniversary dinner of duck (Peking from Lotus Farms who comes to the Santa Fe Farmers Market each Saturday) with dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, fresh cranberry/Satsuma relish, Brussels Sprouts this year and Kabocha custard. Of course, there is always tons of left overs which is great since this year the day after Thanksgiving we are planning an outing to Hopi Pueblo then onto Gallup to visit my very favorite trading post: Richardson's. It is like walking into a museum of mostly Navajo artifacts. The antique jewelry and rugs, among many other items, are stunning. So all the left overs will be our meals on the road and at an Airbnb in Winslow, Arizona: The Haven which is a repurposed old vintage church.

"Eternal Spirit of Justice and Love,

At this time of Thanksgiving we would be aware of our

dependence on the earth and on the sustaining presence of other

human beings both living and gone before us.

As we partake of bread and wine, may we remember that

there are many for whom sufficient bread is a luxury,

or for whom wine, when attainable, is only an escape.

Let our thanksgiving for Life's bounty include

a commitment to changing the world,

that those who are hungry may be filled

and those without hope may be given courage."

Congregation of Abraxas

As we honor Thanksgiving, filling our day giving thanks and feeding those who are hungry, may we also have a good belly