Monday, September 26, 2005

Self-Watching

It seems over the last few weeks as I have returned from my Father-in-law's funeral (after spending a great deal of time with him, my wife, etc...), and the subsequent revival in my blogging, I've only been able to muster one really interesting, theological or social post each week. Now, that realization has driven me to seek inspiration for a great post.

Alas! I've been reduced to navel-gazing about how interesting I haven't been...the worst kind of narcissistic introspection! It's probably just exaustion from a combination of candidacy work, a day of youth work, and theological study, but maybe not.

My favorite season has returned to New England! Summer/growing season is necessary, but I'm neither a fan of heat or humidity, and New England summers tend to exibit both. The large oak in the parsonage side-yard is just beginning to burst into orange flame, and the butternut squash in our garden are nearing harvest.

We had the first round of fall food the over the last week -- a beef and lamb stew with Maine potatoes, local parsnips, carrots, onions, and our own tomatoes from the garden; a few days later we ate roasted chicken breasts with honeyed root vegetables (carrots and parsnips), roasted potatoes with onions, and one of the last few summer sqash. Soon the time of butternut squash and roasts of all sorts will return, when the heat from the oven seems a pleasant addition, not a summer annoyance!

Today we removed the air-conditioners from the windows, after weeks of idleness on their part. Any night now the residual heat from the day will fail to keep us warm until morning, and soon enough it will once again be sweater-weather! When we returned home this evening, in the drizzle of an autumn rain, I smelled wood smoke from the neighbor's chimnee for the first time in months...this is truly a blessed time of the year.

Maybe I'm alone, but it's Autumn/Harvest again and I couldn't be happier.

3 comments:

Betty Newman said...

David, here in the South, we've harvested for a good while now. I've "put up" dozens of jars of salsa, spaghetti sauce, and tomato soup, along with the bags and bags of sweet peppers in the freezer.

Then there are the "fruits" - apple butter, preserves, and jellies.

We live on a farm, and I too, love the harvest. I am a self-employed business owner, but I love these days of working in the kitchen.

It seems every year, that God has just blessed us so much. Right now, we're dealing with my Dad's cancer, but in the midst of it, (over, under, around and through it) God is so good!

Sometimes "theology" needs to be reduced to a good bowl of soup!

Betty

Anonymous said...

Couldn't have said it better. Here in suburbia, the sights of school buses and kids in backpacks lets us know summer has passed, along with the gradual revelation of tree colors.

Thankfully, I'm close enough to Essex county farmers that I can get all the goodness of fresh vegetables and friut, particularly crisp, crunchy, tart apples. Nothing says fall to me more than the smell of apples, nutmeg and cinnamon wafting out of the oven.

I've always noticed an extra spring in my step come September and October, too. It feels like the REAL beginning of the year. Maybe I've just been the servant of the academic calendar too long, but I always feel ready to tackle new and big stuff come autumn.

New England may be rather miserable for most of the year; cold, snowy and slushy in the winter, gray and mucky in the 'spring' (we don't really have spring, honestly, but we need a better name than mud season), hot and humid in the summer. But these few months of autumn make me never want to leave.

-Chris

Anonymous said...

I love the Fall too. Even more, unlike Chris, I love the winter. Can't wait for it, would love to move even more north. And yet, the seasons help me in my pastoral journey to do a type of spiritual cleaning and make adjustments every quarter.