Your friend shares about their special needs child? You are listening to a story of your friend who is a caregiver and the surgery the person they care for just had? Your friend just took their family to a special camp and had a great experience? Phil. 2:3-5, “do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for our own personal interests, but also for the interest of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.” Let’s do this and care about others, their story, and give them “their moment!”

Impressed recently about this idea, I have realized that we don’t often give others a chance to share their “moment” without others (or myself) wanting to share a similar experience or story. Something that happened to us recently has us really reflecting and being much more observant of letting others share what is important to them without topping their story or telling our own unless they ask.
Upon being asked how we were, Joe shared that I (Cindi) had just gotten out of the hospital and shared in 2 sentences how critical I was in the ICU -going in for one reason and other things popping up. Without missing a beat, nor asking a question or showing any interest, they shared about a friend who went into the hospital for something and died of something unrelated. It helped us to realize some things we should be aware of when others share something with us:

Others (outside our closer circles) probably don’t really care and thus their own story will come to mind and trumps ours (we didn’t know this persons’ friend, so how was this story pertinent in the moment?)
Their story was obviously more important or they would have asked about ours (not a question asked nor a concern shown except, “get better soon”.)
Their “death” story of their friend didn’t encourage our journey!
The “can you top this” attitude can leave one feeling unheard and invisible. (It did us.)

So how did we handle it? We said not another word, listened to the story and commented on it, sharing our condolences on the loss, and went on our way.
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[Paragraph regarding the first Thanksgiving] Our harvest being collected our governor sent four men fowling together so we might rejoice together in a more special way after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. In just one day the hunters killed as much fowl as if their hunting party had been larger. The fowl fed the company almost a week at which time, among other recreations, we drilled with our fire arms. Many of the Indians joined us including Massasoit, the greatest king, and some ninety of his men. We all entertained and feasted together for three days. The Indians went out and killed five deer which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, the captain, and others. 

The letter that follows this introduction was sent by Edward Winslow from Plymouth Plantation to George Morton in December 1621 as part of what came to be published by Morton with other material as A Relation or Journal of the Beginning and Proceedings of the English Plantation Settled at Plimoth in New England, 1622, henceforth abbreviated A Relation. The book is specifically identified as having been published by “G. Mourt” at the end of its “To the Reader” section, thus the true identity of Mr. Mourt has been debated given the difference in spelling between Morton and Mourt. The issues involved in Mourt’s identification are addressed by H. M. Dexter in the edition of A Relation he edited for publication in 1865. The ship carrying Winslow’s work to England was the Fortune which had recently arrived in Plymouth. The letter and other material in A Relation were likely taken to England by Robert Cushman and given to George Morton. It is a wonder that A Relation made it to England because the Fortune was seized by the French as it neared the English coast and robbed of anything valuable, but it was later released after a short time of capture. One particularly valuable and bulky part of the cargo was clapboards hewn from the rich forests of America and there were some casks filled with pricey beaver and other pelts.
Edward Winslow was born in 1595. He married Elizabeth Barker and at the time of their arrival in Plymouth they were guardians for a little girl named Ellen who was the sister of Richard More. The family also had two male servants named George Soule and Elias Story. Winslow was educated in an Anglican school. He was a printing apprentice, however, he did not complete his training before leaving England for Holland to reside with other separatists. He worked in printing in Leyden with fellow separatist William Brewster until they boarded the Mayflower for Plymouth. Elizabeth Winslow died shortly after arrival in Plymouth. Edward then married Susanna White who was a widow and the mother of the first child born in the colony, Peregrine White. Winslow was a governor of Plymouth Colony and highly influential for the success of the community. He died aboard ship near Jamaica in 1655.
George Morton would arrive in Plymouth in July 1623 aboard the Anne with his wife Juliana Carpenter Morton and their five children—Nathaniel, Patience, John, Sarah, and Ephraim. Morton received seven acres in the land division of Plymouth in 1623. But the difficulties of New England life quickly took its toll on Mr. Morton as it did so many other colonists because he died in June 1624.
The letter provides an interesting overview of life for the first year of Plymouth Plantation. Most importantly for this article there is a paragraph about the first Thanksgiving, but do not look for the word because it is not in the letter.
As compared with other early seventeenth-century authors, Edward Winslow is not one of the better writers. The following text has been modernized and the more cumbersome lengthy sentences have been broken into shorter statements. Also, the paragraphing has been modified. In one location an ellipsis, three periods in a row, will be found in the place of about four lines of text which I could not understand sufficiently to compose in a coherent form. There are many ambiguities in Winslow’s text at least partially due to his composing it for a friend whom he assumes knows certain facts, issues, and events which are mysteries to modern readers. In several locations I have turned to paraphrasing and completely rewriting sentences for the sake of clarity. Some archaic terminology has been explained in [ ].
Sources for this introduction include the Plimoth Plantation website and William Bradford’s journal as cited in last years article on Thanksgiving. The edition of A Relation edited by Dexter was located in PDF on Internet Archive; Winslow’s letter is on pages 192-203 of the PDF, which are pages with the dual numbering of 60 & 131 through 142 & 65 of the original book as scanned to PDF (when you see the PDF you should understand what I mean). Note that there have been several editions of A Relation over the years including abridged versions which Dexter mentions in the introduction to his edition, and he has observed that some editions are not very well done.  Dexter includes in his extensive footnotes a list of the passengers who arrived in Plymouth on the Fortune. 
The original Plimoth (Plymouth) Plantation is a living museum which can be visited to experience the world of Winslow and the colonists. The village provides a wonderful experience through its buildings, grounds, and interpreters. At a separate location near Plymouth Rock there is a replica of the Mayflower which may lead visitors to revise their understanding of how large a vessel needs to be before it can be called a ship.
The images of both Edward Winslow and the title page of A Relation were located in The Story of The Pilgrim Fathers 1606-1623 as told by Themselves, their Friends, and their Enemies, which was written by Edward Arber, published in London in 1897, and found in digital form on Internet Archive.
A LETTER SENT FROM
New-England to a friend in these parts [England],
setting forth a briefe and true Declaration
of the worth of that Plantation;
As also certaine useful Directions
for such as intend a Voyage
into those Parts.
——————————-
Loving and old Friend, although I received no letter from you by this ship [Fortune], yet forasmuch as I know, you expect the performance of my promise which was to write unto you truly and faithfully of all things. I have therefore at this time sent unto you accordingly referring you for further satisfaction to our more large relations [the rest of A Relation]. You shall understand that in the short time we few have been here, we have built seven dwelling houses, four buildings for the use of the plantation, and have made preparation for several others. We sowed last spring some twenty acres of Indian corn and some six acres of barley and peas. According to the manner of the Indians, we fertilized our ground with herrings, or rather shads, which we have in great abundance and catch with great ease near our homes. Our corn did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn and our barley was fairly good, but our peas were not worth gathering. We feared that they were sown too late. They came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom.
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As with so many of our favorite hymns, “The Love of God” was born in adversity. Frederick Lehman (1868–1953), who wrote the hymn with his daughter, had experienced the failure of his once-profitable business, which left him packing crates of oranges and lemons in Pasadena, California, to make ends meet. Again and again throughout history, deep and enduring trials seem to have a strange and beautiful way of swelling the waves of worship.

You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. (Psalm 40:5)
As with so many of our favorite hymns, “The Love of God” was born in adversity. Frederick Lehman (1868–1953), who wrote the hymn with his daughter, had experienced the failure of his once-profitable business, which left him packing crates of oranges and lemons in Pasadena, California, to make ends meet. Again and again throughout history, deep and enduring trials seem to have a strange and beautiful way of swelling the waves of worship.
Perhaps the most memorable lines in the hymn, however, were not Lehman’s, but words someone had found scribbled on the walls of an insane asylum a couple hundred years earlier, words that had been passed along to Lehman and held profound meaning for him.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,And were the skies of parchment made;Were every tree on earth a quill,And every man a scribe by trade;To write the love of God aboveWould drain the ocean dry,Nor could the scroll contain the whole,Though stretched from sky to sky.
The lyrics, it turns out, were a translation of an old Aramaic poem (now almost a thousand years old). And while no one knows the name of the insane asylum patient, the circumstances of his suffering, or how he came across the poem, the lines sparkle with surprising clarity, hope, and, well, sanity. A kind of spiritual sanity that often eludes us.
More Than Can Be Told
That Lehman treasured the lyrics is hardly surprising. Living just a handful of miles from the Pacific Ocean, he would have known, with acute awareness, the roaring vastness of the sea, the tall and swaying elegance of palm trees, and the bursts and hues of California sunsets. Day by day, he held the brilliant orangeness of its oranges and smelled the lively tartness of its lemons. The ocean, the trees, the sky, the earth were enormous and familiar friends of his — and yet each so small next to the love he had come to know in Christ.
When Lehman looked at the sky, he saw a hint of something wider still.
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