Deacon J is coming this afternoon to help decorate the Farm for Halloween. DJ has a really hard time passing up a dollar store, and so she has an extensive collection of holiday things upon which to draw at times like this. I never did much decorating for this feast, just carved a jack-o'lantern or two and set them out. But I realized a couple of years ago that more children will come to your house trick-or-treating if it's decorated in front, and I want them to come. So we've become part of the Halloween boom.
DJ tells me that her dog, Emmy Lou the Good, has been given a princess costume -- complete with tiara -- to wear for Halloween. This enlarges her collection: already, in her short life, she has been a bumblebee and, I believe, a witch. Emmy is very used to this sort of thing: at Christmas time, she patiently wears a little pair of reindeer antlers.
The other day, my cell phone alerted me to a text message: The Thanksgiving food magazines are on the stands! Anna had typed, and my heart skipped a beat. When I got to the train station I picked up a copy of Bon Appetit; on Thursday afternoon, both Martha Stewart Living and Better Homes and Gardens were waiting in my mailbox when I got home, an embarrassment of riches if ever there was one. And yesterday, we had the first serious conversation of the year about turkey provenance: heirloom, again, or just organic free range? Powerful arguments can be put forth for either one, and they square off against each other in my brain whenever I'm not thinking of something else.
What a delight! How many autumns have there been, so full of excitement and gifts of love? Many. Oh, there have been a few made, instead, of weariness and pain -- but only a few. And even those were mixed: happiness is stubborn and strong, and usually manages to get in a word or two, even in the worst of times.
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On Friday, some of you received an eMo in a voice you might not have recognized. It was a mechanical error on our part: about a thousand people on the eMo list got Deacon J's More or Less Church sermon prep meditation instead. My apologies, although I do hope you enjoyed it. Remember that you can sign up, for eMos or for MOLC, at www.geraniumfarm.org under "subscribe."
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