CELEBRATING OUR NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING BEYOND THESE WALLS............

Resolved yesterday to celebrate ThanksGiving Day as normal as possible, from beyond the confines of involuntary exile, I joined in a meeting of minds with my friend, colleague, mentor, and second father, Ed Kavanagh, and gathered with him to share a ThanksGiving Day meal togethe - dining at Scott's On The River restaurant; in what was another first for me, a ThanksGiving Dinner in a public outing rather than a family home or parish rectory.  It was an enjoyable few hours conversing, catching up, sharing one another's company, in the authentic spirit of the holiday.  Thanks to Ted and Irene Dahlberg, I kicked off the ThanksGiving observance on Wednesday afternoon when they delivered sugar free cupcakes and a personally baked pumpkin pie, to mark and brighten my celebration of the holiday.  Then, as has been true throughout 2012, Joe Gibson and Ruth Rosenberg rounded out and completed my ThanksGiving Day, by dropping by last night with some of the turkey and trimmings from their family ThanksGiving Dinner and to visit.  Ed, Ted, Irene, Joe, Ruth, helped me achieve the normalcy of American ThanksGiving Day yesterday, in a year when  abnormality of activity and residence, has altered my daily existence.  For the past 30 years ThanksGiving weekend has been an inordinate experience for me, as it was on ThanksGiving Day 1982, that my mother's terminal illness took its final turn, resulting in her death six days later.  Being remembered and included in as normal a Turkey Day remembrance as I was yesterday, and have been for more than two decades by my cherished friends and holiday family, the Bugattos and Mugnaini's, is one more reason I am grateful and appreciative for the blessings of Faith, Family, Friendship, Fraternity, and Fellowship.  Everyone deserves to celebrate and participate in ThanksGiving, our day of National Consecration in Gratitude to God, for the blessings of Life in this way, to be remembered and not forgotten............Fr.  Troy