Sharing Sustenance - A Gift For Your Soul

There are just over two weeks left until Thanksgiving arrives. Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. Thanksgiving, for me, is about family, food, sharing, and reflection. Every year, as the day approaches, I can not help but become consumed by this idea of "thanksgiving". I can't help but focus, not on the stresses of holiday living, but, instead, on what I am thankful for. Perhaps this is because my father passed away on Thanksgiving morning when I was 12 years old. I had eleven fabulous Thanksgivings with my father. I will always have them, and I am forever grateful for every moment.

I am also extremely appreciative of the miracles my mother performed for all 29 Thanksgivings (and years!) I had with her. She was on disability, with two children, paying a mortgage, feeding us wholesome meals, and still somehow always made Thanksgiving feel as close to a Norman Rockwell painting as could have been possible with all our family to boot: aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and, very often, visiting guests!  When I was younger I never truly understood how difficult this must have been for my mother. As I grew older the finances started to become clearer, and I as I worked I contributed to the house income, but I have to say it was not until my mother passed away and we had to settle the estate that I understood, for the first time, how close we could have been, any number of times to simply not making it.

Food was the key, I realized. We didn't always have all the newest coolest stuff, but we always had food on the table and we always had enough to share.

I want to continue this tradition of sharing and I want to try to do it virtually. You may have noticed a FOOD BANK icon on the blog.

Sharing sustenance feeds our souls.

This is our virtual food drive for the Food Bank of NYC.  I have set up a Searching for Sustenance Team goal of $500. I found out that $500 will sponsor 2,500 meals!! I think that is a pretty awesome deal (...of course, if we bust through that goal, that would be awesome, too).



The Food Bank has been around for 27 years and is an amazing local organization. I know many of my readers are not local, but I am personally following one of my mantras here of "Think Global, Act Local" with the hopes that we can make little changes here in New York, and then maybe you will be inspired to do something similar in your local community!

This is a new type of call to action. It is one that asks you to open your wallet. I'll understand if you feel it is too much to ask, but before you decide THINK FOR A MOMENT - will $20 really leave you destitute? What about $10? What about $5??? I am not asking YOU to reach the $500 goal alone, I think we can do it TOGETHER!!
 

If you would like to make a donation or just check out our team page to see how we are doing so far, here is the link:

http://help.foodbanknyc.org/goto/searchingforsustenance

Thank you :)