Scenes of Joy for a Serene Sunday

--On this day in 1962, my parents married each other.  The Cuban Missile Crisis had just been resolved.  Right up until the day of the wedding, they weren't sure my dad would be there.  For that matter, the threat of nuclear annihilation hung over them all.  This blog post explores those threads, and it's one of my favorites.

--On Friday, I stopped by a grocery store.  When I returned my cart to the store after putting my groceries in the trunk, I wanted to stop total strangers to say, "Do you see that sunset?"  I didn't.  But as I pulled out of the parking lot, I noticed that the surly looking man who'd been leaning against the car beside mine walked into the lot.  He held up his cell phone to get a shot of the sunset.  Hurrah for beautiful sunsets.

--Earlier on Friday, I headed over to Broward College for a symposium on BMI.  No, not Body Mass Index, but Brain Machine Interface.  It was geared towards students, so these ideas were not new to me.  I daresay they're not new to anyone who grew up reading sci-fi or watching any incarnation of Star Trek.  Are we our machines?  At what point are we cyborgs?  Do machines have rights?  But it was fun to see the students engage with these ideas.

--Afterward, I went to lunch with my friend who met me there.  She had said, "I didn't think you'd be interested in stuff like this."  When I asked her why, she looked puzzled and said, "Well, to be honest, because you don't watch Star Trek. How can you be a geek if you don't watch Star Trek?

--On Thursday, I was waiting in the bank drive through line when I noticed a small boy, maybe 8 or 9, running across the end of the drive through lanes.  The security guard kept an eye on him as he ran up the sidewalk to the door.  He turned not one but two cartwheels and went inside.  A few minutes later, he came outside with his hands full of lollipops and such a look of joy on his face.  He ran back to his mom's car, which was in the furthermost drive through lane.  I love that he was so overjoyed because of a handful of lollipops.

--I had a quieter joy yesterday morning.  I got to my church early to help set up for the fall festival and to deliver butterscotch bars for the bake sale.  I wasn't really needed, so I walked over to our pumpkin patch.


We've sold a lot of pumpkins since we unloaded the truck 9 days ago! There were pathways through the pumpkin piles, so I walked slowly, dare I say, meditatively.  I thought about how similar it was to walking a labyrinth--and how different. The main difference, of course, is that a labyrinth goes in a set pattern so that there's one way in to the center, no matter how much the walker winds around the center. The pumpkin patch didn't have that quality.  But I loved being in the cool morning air, smelling the pumpkins and the dirt, marvelling at the diversity of the pumpkins and indeed, all of creation.

--Go here to read my full report from my church's sincere pumpkin patch.

--Go here for a recipe for butterscotch bars.  They're so easy and so delicious.  If your Sunday needs sweetness, they're a simple solution.