Gray Skies & a Good Feast

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“…As the days on which the Jews got relief from the enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor.”

~ Esther 9:22

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Things that made me happy in November:

A day with Dad, sitting under Zack Eswine’s teaching on wisdom, lunch at a downtown deli, and bricked streets

A Sunday morning for good lessons and hard truths and conversations where Jesus is teaching me how to listen

Gray Tuesday afternoon for talking with writer friends

First dark evening; dinner and the last of the sunset

Charles Spurgeon on Jonathan Edwards’ teaching: “Just the preaching of the old fashioned doctrines of grace”

Golden living room light

Natalie P’s cookies

Joel healing from ACL surgery and having him home during the work week; making Chai lattes for him and Natalie

Shopping for my Operation Christmas Child shoebox with Alli and Janaya, and how they love to give and give

After weeks of an injured ankle: a slow, careful run

Voting beside my neighbors

Taking Papa Jay to Fink’s to get his muffins, and how all the employees call him the Muffin Man

Stacking wood

Learning ‘Carol of the Birds’ on violin

Skye Peterson concert with four of us siblings

“The Morning” by Thomas Austin

The Saturday when the winds finally turned bitter; making butternut squash soup, helping Brian skin his deer, tearing out the garden, and falling asleep by the fire after dinner

Waking up in the early light and looking out to see the first snow heavy on the cedars

Red sun rising

Handing out Christmas flyers downtown with Janaya, wrapped in coats on windy sidewalks, and stopping in the barber shops, bakery, and bank lobby, meeting the townspeople

Driving past Christmas displays in the windows of the furniture store

An Evening of Story & Song with Jason and Courtney; a full room and true worship

Moccasins

Sleepover with all the nephews and nieces

The day before Thanksgiving

Our own feast — setting the table with Nanny’s Friendly Village dish set, mom in her apron working over the turkey, crumbling pecans for sweet potatoes, kids piled on the couch, cranberry chutney, and pies

A low mist in the crooks of the trees, and teaching the kids how to play football in rubber boots

Coffee, games, and a history lesson with Papa Larry after dark

Friday leftovers, ping-pong tournament, and playing the old piano into Papa and Mema’s wallpapered living room

Goodnights and warm dishwater

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