"Until then" written by Tim H Mills: Happy Thanksgiving 2015

Friday, November 20, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving 2015

The gobble season has finally arrived so it is now time to officially say Happy Thanksgiving! During this holiday many will gather with more people sitting around the tables, standing around the stoves talking and eating than we might be able to count. For those cooking it might have been weeks in the planning and after everyone is gone the cooks will no doubt find a quite place, or any place for that matter, and pass out! Thanksgiving is that time of the year for a grateful people to celebrate the blessings of God. Thanksgiving is a celebration of the gathering of the harvest and a time to look back at progress and see the hand-i-work of God in our lives. Certainly the early explorers and settlers gave thanks to God for His blessings on their endeavors which included not only a harvest and preparation for winter time but a harvest of good for trading and a harvest of new friends too. Giving Christopher Columbus credit for discovering America is in part correct. He at least connected two different worlds with this new land already occupied by the original settlers, indians who called this land home and the Spanish and Europeans who established St. Augustine, Florida in September 8, 1565. The Mayflower Compact which was the first written document establishing a government for America was not signed until November 11, 1620. "Thanks" "Giving" is a unique time as I official acknowledge individuals, moments and organizations that have impacted my life but this season should be unique for each of us along the same line of thought. If we pause from our busy schedules and reflect I am confident that even if the past year has been filled with illness, death, challenges, difficulties and "everything at once", we should still be able to find the silver linings. Looking for good things, positive moments or people might require some digging, but I'm confident that no matter our circumstances we can each find good things from our lives and moments that have made us a better person and people too. "Thanks" is that which results from thinking about our blessings and "Giving" is that which results because we see others in greater need than we do ourselves. If you add both of these together I believe your life will be a positive influence on others and the world will be a better place. Happy Thanksgiving! Until then

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A little bit about Tim

Born in Warren, Michigan, Tim came to Kentucky when his parents returned to their roots in Southeastern Kentucky. He clearly calls the mountains home today. Tim is a licensed and ordained Minister of the Gospel and he currently serves the First Presbyterian Church in Harlan, Kentucky. He began writing a newspaper column in 1979. That column was called "Smoke Signals" and it was written for the Bell County Volunteer Fire Department when he was their Public Relations Officer. That newspaper column transitioned from those years into "Until then". Today the column is published in the Pineville Sun Courier, Middlesboro Daily News, the Mountain Advocate, Harlan Daily Enterprise and the Clairbone Progress.

Welcome to "Until then"

There are things that you just want to get accomplished in life that seem to take forever.
I began writing back in 1979, and while there are newspaper copies of those articles plublished back then in the Pineville Sun, (mainly in my mother's scrapbook of my clippins) I have never taken the time to scan those to attempt to record them in another form.
When I began writing it was the old fashon typewriter that was my best friend. This site was established to allow for sharing of my column through social media outlets and to serve as a respository for personal historical records, research of thoughts for others and public acknowledgement of people, places, events experienced through life.
The greatest hope and idea is that from this collection my family and friends will find this site as a way to remember my efforts to impact my world with the talents and energies that God has given me. Wal Whitman wrote in Leaves of Grass, the question and the answer: "What good among these oh me, oh life? That you are here. That you exist and have idenity and the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse".
My prayer is that my verse will be a value cherished as I have given my best toward that effort.

Tim Hobart Mills