The Delights of Autumn

Yesterday, when I got to my office, it looked like the Great Pumpkin had come!  Ten pumpkins in my little office--a happy reminder of our good week-end.  But my office is small; there's barely room for my desk and a chair across from it.  It's less than 8 x 8--maybe 7 x 7?  More than one of my colleagues commented on how festive my office looked.

I'll try to remember next year to bring a bigger pumpkin to the office.  I have a very small one on my desk.  It's the size of an apple.  I've noticed that people like to hold it.

Yesterday was a day of many festivities.  We had scary movie day in the library, so I ate more popcorn than advisable.  It was also a colleague's birthday, so I brought in a cake. 

In the afternoon, I saw a call for submissions at the website of Crab Orchard Review:  "To celebrate twenty years of publication, CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW is seeking submissions for our Summer/Fall 2015 issue focusing on writing inspired or informed by the experiences, observations, and/or cultural and historical events of the following topic: '20 Years: Writing About 1995-2015.' We are open to work that covers any of the ways our world and ourselves have changed due to the advancements, setbacks, tragedies, and triumphs of the last twenty years." 

I thought it sounded interesting, so I had a pleasant time going back through old files looking for poems that might fit the theme ( if you want to submit, go here for more details, but don't wait too long--the submission must be mailed by Nov. 10).

I got home to find out that my spouse had thawed pork chops.  So the autumn festival atmosphere continued.  I sautéed apples in butter and apple cider--yummm.  I also heated up some frozen butternut squash puree.  It was the perfect fall meal.

Perhaps today will have more autumnal delights.  I awoke to discover that my blog post was up at the Living Lutheran site.  Go here to read it.  Here are some quotes to whet your appetite:

"And then I thought of all those agricultural metaphors, where Jesus says, 'The kingdom of heaven is like ... .' That parable of the seeds and the different types of ground – do we really understand that parable if we’ve never planted anything?"

"Unloading the pumpkins also reminds me of something else that I cherish about church communities: At their best, there is room for everyone. The littlest ones can carry pumpkins, if they want to help that way. Those of us without the strength to carry pumpkins can help sell them."

"As I cradled those pumpkins, which so resemble human heads, I felt a strange tenderness toward them, the tenderness that I imagine God feels toward us all. In some ways, pumpkins are so sturdy and yet so fragile. All it takes is one slip and the pumpkin is rendered useless, a pulpy mess of slime and gunk. And yet, even from that accident could come new life, if one planted the pumpkin seeds. From that one pumpkin, we could grow a whole new patch, life out of death."