One day Pooh and Piglet were sitting on a log. Piglet shared with Pooh, that Piglet had noticed that even though he had a very small heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude. It seems when we go shopping our world wants to move quickly from Halloween to the Christmas Season and skip over Thanksgiving. Maybe it is time for us to join Pooh and Piglet on that log and see how much gratitude our hearts might hold.

Rev. David Brown is a retired United Church of Christ (UCC) minister who is a member of the Ashland UCC Congregation and is also involved with the UU Congregation in Medford. Before retirement, he served churches in Massachusetts, Wyoming, and California. He is active with the Taize services in Ashland, and the Peace and Justice Committee in Medford.

David and his wife, Linda Hammer-Brown, officially moved to Phoenix, Oregon, in September 2020. Following COVID, they discovered that the Rogue Valley is a wonderful place to get involved with volunteering. As they are still in the “Go, Go” stage of retirement, they volunteer at a number of places, including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Britt Music Festival, the Beekman House, and the Jackson County Fuel Committee. David really enjoys taking Olli courses at SOU and other schools, and he has officially adopted the SOU Raiders as his favorite college sports team.