This week is Thanksgiving in the United States, when many of us are more intentional about offering gratitude, as well as a week of Thanksgrieving, when we acknowledge the lives and lands that have been lost to genocide, greed, colonialism, and entitlement. Many times, two or more things can be true at once.

Today, we offer gratitude for all the energy, people, and programs that make up UUSS. Thank you to those who have recently begun attending, and/or who are reading Circuits for the first time! Thanks to those who have been part of the congregation for decades, and are the story keepers and the story sharers. Thanks to those who show up, who wash the dishes and pull the weeds, who learn alongside the kids and youth, and who attend meetings, and worship, all kinds of events, and who collaborate for justice.

Thanks to those who are doing the beautiful, tender, and sometimes hard work of faith development, which can look so many different ways, and transforms us in the process. Thanks to those who practice connection and care within the congregation, and in the wider community.

Thank you to our Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist forbears who made it possible for us to inherit their generosity and to those who are here right now being good stewards of this inheritance. May we be so filled with gratitude that we care for it our whole lives that we may pass this gift of hope onto those who will come after us.

Thank you to this amazing Earth, our spinning beautiful home.

With gratitude, ~ Rev. Lynn & Rev. Wendy