Dear friends,

For the past few days, there had been several huge wild fires burning at many different parts of Southern California. This morning, as I stepped outside my house to water the roses in my garden, I immediately noticed a strong burning smell, followed by traces of snow-like flakes that flew down from above. For a few seconds, I actually thought God had answered my prayer - to make it snow in sunny California! Unfortunately, there was no such luck, because the flakes that drifted down on my head are not wet, cold, nor white, nope, they were dry, ugly and gray! As of now, the news reported 10 different wild fires going on at the same time; several hundred thousands of acres of brush forests being consumed, and damages reach up to billions of dollars so far. These fires continue to spread and are becoming harder to contain as time goes by. From where I stand, as I gazed my eyes toward the horizon where the mountains meet the sky, I saw the entire mountain and valley vicinity being enveloped by a thick brownish-gray blanket of smoke. There was no clear blue sky anywhere to be found. The odor of smoke filled the air, making each inhaling breath very repulsive to the nostril and irritating to the eyes.

At time like this, all of our modern technologies and advancement are still inadequate to help control the fires. We are still unable to protect the atmosphere against the harmful smoke that engulfed the air. Mankind seems pathetically helpless against such massive disaster. Smoke continues to rise. All must breathe the dirty, smoky air - the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak, the guilty and the innocent. During these days, when I go outside, I would have to pull the collar of my shirt up to cover my nose so I can breath a little easier. How I wish to breathe clean air again! It was then that I realized how great it was to have fresh air, so abundantly available for me every day in the past. It was also then, that I knew how much I’ve taken for granted something so valuable and so crucial to my life - the air. This fire is a reminder for me to appreciate the many great. and small things in my life. I knew that God, merely by willing it, can bestow upon us a few minutes of rain to wipe out the most ferocious flame, and the earth will be cleansed and we’ll have fresh clean air soon enough. These mighty fires remind me, once again, that man is not as powerful as he thinks he is, yet, God, on the other hand, is every bit as powerful as can be. It’s amazing to me how God had been sustaining life on earth throughout the ages despites numerous disasters in the past.

As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, let’s really spend some times to think of the many things that we often overlooked in our daily lives. We can start with the most "insignificant" things (such as... our toe nails - without them, we’d have no protection for the skin on our toes, and it would hurt like crazy each we put our shoes on.so we might just end up going barefooted and risk stepping on sharp objects and injure our feet =). What about bigger things, like our health, which I know, many of us take for granted. We often abuse our health when we don’t take good care of our bodies - by staying up too late at night to chat or surf the net, by not taking regular showers (because there are "better" things to do), by eating too much junk food, smoking, drinking excessively, or by piercing our body parts to be "cool," etc. Why don’t we love ourselves enough to take better care of our bodies before it’s too late? The body has to work so much harder to undo each damage that we cause upon it in order to keep us healthy. Have you ever thought of what would happen if all of a sudden, you get a stroke and become paralyzed in bed like a wilted celery? Imagine how much you would wish to have your health back again and what you’d do differently with your life. A few years ago, I had a bad case of the flu and was totally drained of all energy. My whole body ached and I felt exhausted. I remembered lying in bed and looking out the window. I saw the green pine trees standing tall against the clear blue sky. In the background, I heard the lively chirping of birds. Right then, I had one of those rare ‘sacred’ moments where I learned to appreciate my health so much more. I remembered wanting desperately to get well so I can live my life to the fullest again. I told myself that if I get well again, I will not waste any time in doing useless things, I would do everything wholeheartedly and take real good care of my body so I can do things that matter most in my life.

I’m sure there are tons of things that each of us should be thankful for in our lives. The most obvious is our family - parents, grandparents, siblings, relatives, etc. For each of these people, just imagine for an instant what your life would be like without this person. Think of how much joy and depth this person brings into your life. This will help you appreciate our loved ones more. I strongly urge you to take the time to think of as many things, and people as you can think of - these are gifts / blessings given freely to you from God, our loving Father. God gave us all these wonderful gifts simply because He loves us! He wants to enrich our lives with all these gifts so that we can be happy and so that we can share such happiness with others. When we recognize our gift and its true worth, we will have a more grateful heart toward the Giver. Only when we learn to appreciate and give thanks to the Giver, will we be able to enjoy our gift to the fullest. Won’t you join me in offering up to God, our loving Father, our sincere and heartfelt gratitude for everything He had given to us and for every thing He is continuing to give to us every moment of our lives.

For all of you who still enjoy Phở and other Vietnamese foods as well as are concerned about the situation in Vietnam and its Church, I am glad to let you know we have a new Cardinal, Cardinal John Baptist Phạm Minh Mẫn of Archdiocese of Sài Gòn. This indicates a special love of Pope John Paul II for Vietnamese people in general who have suffered much bloodshed in Vietnam War before and oppression from the Communist government today. I hope that as this news has brought much joys to Vietnamse Catholics in Vietnam and abroad like you and me, you continue to pray for Vietnam and its Catholic Church. You may follow his biography in the accompanied article.

Peace and love in God, our Father,

Tess Nguyen