Columns

As we all begin a new year of life in Sonoma County, we should look across the local landscape and also within ourselves and count our many blessings. By the luck of genetics and geography, we live in a peaceful, plentiful and free country. We happen to also live in one of America’s most beautiful and bountiful regions. For those of us with family, a job and a home, we could not possibly be more blessed. And we don’t need to look too far to see someone who could benefit from our over-abundance of good fortune.

If you know my family, you know we love to go to yard sales and flea markets. Some time ago we found an old brass plaque at a sale. It is titled “The Farmers Arms” and it has a poem below. Embossed in the brass is a man and a woman churning butter and working in the fields. It has a coat of arms with many of the symbols I recognize from being a Windsor Grange member and below a banner that says, “In God is our trust.”

As the first religious institution in the township, the Windsor Community United Methodist Church (www.windsorumc.com) has maintained a vital presence in Windsor for 165 years.