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Psalms 136:1, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”

There was something so nice about our Thanksgiving being on Shabbat.  Saturday dawned cool and quiet.  I am always amazed at how things stop and slow down and how quiet it gets on Shabbat—hardly any cars on the roads and no shops open.  I can really hear the birds singing and people talking instead of cars rushing and horns and business all around.

At breakfast, I met a couple from Tampa, Florida, who was the U.S. representative for the B’hai faith in Haifa. He said that during the Lebannon war this summer, the B’hai kept the lights on at all times and went about taking care of the gardens.  The gardens are one of the major sites in Haifa and are incredibly beautiful.  They do require full time maintenance. He said it was their way of not acknowledging the war. Sort of like the guy wind surfing in the ocean as the sirens were going off.

I love stories like these.  The human spirit in trying times is really encouraging. Morris was also there getting ready to visit friends for Shabbat.  Add to the mix were Israeli’s and now some new French.  As they say, I would love to be a fly on the wall.

As I walked to Will’s, the morning was crisp, clear and cool (60’s) and so quiet.  I was reminded again to listen to the sounds of life and God. I caught myself humming “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”  Really, one side was very sunny and the side was in the shade.  I loved walking in the sunshine.

I cooked most of the day and got things ready for our guests.  We had deviled eggs (why are they called that?), turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, corn, baked potatoes, salad, gravy, and Pecan Pie.  All in all, it was quite tasty.  I was kinda proud of my cooking.  We had 5 Americans and one German.

It was the German’s first Thanksgiving. She looked at the cranberrry sauce with some skeptism, but in the end liked everything.  After I thought about it, cranberry sauce out of the can does look a little odd.  We all talked about past Thanksgivings and how we are so blessed.

I am blessed.  Yes, it has been a hard year, but I am blessed.

This entry was posted by Will on Sunday, November 26th, 2006 at 2:02 am and is filed under From Israel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.