Soup for All the Saints

I had a fairly easy trip across the mountains yesterday, much easier than last week.  I was able to take I 26 the whole way, and much of the landscape was relatively undamaged.  Along the Nolichucky River in Tennessee, however, the damage was astonishing--the pictures just don't prepare me for the changed land.

We had a good All Saints Sunday at Faith Lutheran.  I was very happy with my youth sermon (go to this blog post for details about how to connect saints and gourds and braided bread) and my adult sermon was fine, but not as creative.  

I headed home to my spouse who's struggling with a back injury after too much time with a chainsaw.  I'm trying not to worry, but I'm worried.  I do wonder if I would worry as much if he hadn't had the horrible back issue that led to successful surgery in 2013.

I got some seminary writing done while my soup was warming.  I ate several bowls of broccoli cheddar cheese soup and wondered why I don't make this soup more often.  In part, because the clean up is annoying, in part because the blending is annoying, in part because I don't make soup as often as I once did.

Why was I making soup?  To be part of this:

Our neighborhood had an All Saints Soup gathering in the late afternoon, so I went up the hill to help set up.  It was a beautiful event, and even though some part of me is bone tired all the time once we get to November, there's still enough of the non-tired part of me to take joy in these kinds of gatherings.

I am taking over the position of being the person who plans these events in the coming year.  Happily, I won't be reinventing the wheel.

It was good to be with my neighbors, many of whom are also good friends.  It was nourishing to catch up, and I felt better knowing that I was not the only one wondering where October went, feeling sad because one of my favorite months just slipped away from me.

Clean up went fairly quickly, and soon we were home, waiting for football to be over, waiting to watch The Simpsons.  It was the Halloween special, the Tree House of Horror, and as with most years, I found myself comparing it to past years:  not as brilliant, but still better than much pop culture.

I was sad this morning to hear about the death of Quincy Jones--what a life he had!  I knew that he had done amazing things, but reading about them all, in one article, really made me appreciate him further. 

 

And it makes me even more strengthened in my resolve to appreciate my own life.  October may be gone, but November has its own autumnal beauty, especially this year, when we're having very mild days.  Let me remember to appreciate it all.