The Business of Autumn

During autumn, once life-filled leaves begin to fall to nourish the earth, making way for new growth in the spring that follows winter’s stillness.

Autumn Brings Opportunity for Growth

In the midst of purging through a forest of file folders it became evident that lives have passed, lessons have been given and opportunities for growth sit on new paths waiting to be discovered.

Address changes, special greetings, thank you notes, do I toss or keep? A wastebasket sits by my feet ready to swallow what I discard. It isn’t easy to put some things into a wastebasket, but it is time to let go, turn towards the next season while holding in my heart names and faces I see when reading a hand-written address or note from someone who is no longer on this earth but may be looking down from one of heaven’s windows.

I hold a card with a photo of a black and white cow wearing a colorful sombrero. Inside the card, the words “Moo-chas Gracias” appear. The writer couldn’t find an appropriate card picturing a chihuahua, her favorite dog. Her card also contained a two page hand-written note on yellow legal paper written a decade ago. I can’t let go of it. The writer passed in April. I will treasure it. In part she wrote:

Being There Can Be Enough

If you run across a cow wearing a colorful sombrero, remember, “Being there can be enough to get us through.”

Catfish, Honey

June 25 was declared National Catfish Day (for farm-raised catfish) by President Ronald Reagan in 1987. Farm-raised catfish doesn’t fish well by us, coming from Louisiana, near Lac Des Allemands and Spahr’s Restaurant on Highway 90, in the heart of the Catfish Capital of the Universe, so decreed by Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards in 1975. Where else can you nosh on some of the sweetest catfish you will ever taste other than in a converted gas station that overlooks a picturesque bayou filled with alligators. Des Allemands, LA is the place and home of an annual Catfish Festival to go along with their “out of this world” catfish title.

A St. Cloud, Florida restaurant gives wild catfish a very good try, no farm-raised catfish here either. Their catfish are imported from Lake Okeechobee and other local bodies of water. The restaurant, like Spahr’s is a throwback to another era, but they boast a long list of famous people who have dined there. Our names did not make the list.

We were in the area to purchase local honey from 3Beez Honey Farm, from their small storefront off Grape Avenue in St. Cloud. 3Beez, in our opinion, has the purest, best tasting honey in the area.

On the way home after the honey buy, we stopped at the St. Cloud restaurant for lunch. Catfish entrees were half price in honor of National Catfish Day. We hit a small jackpot with the size of the restaurant’s abundant portions, bringing half a meal home to our refrigerator.

We reminisced about dear friends now living in Georgia who love this restaurant.

Pass the catfish, honey. It’s been a good day.

Five for the Plate

Ever been on mission to have it abruptly interrupted? On my way to a meeting, my enthusiastic foot pressing hard on the car’s accellerator got me a signed, suitable for framing warning from local law enforcement. I was traveling 10 miles over the speed limit on a Saturday morning, 8:25am.

“Driver’s license please?” I texted my husband. I may be late for my meeting. I waited for what seemed 30 minutes. The officer approached my car shaking his head side to side. Dread filled my heart. “This time, I’m giving you a warning, I see your husband was cited at a stop sign some time ago. You are in the system now,” he said. I thanked him, driving slowly away, placing the Warning Notice above the passenger seat visor.

Whew, a narrow escape for me. Then I thought, I should have mentioned that I would put an extra $5 in the offering plate on Sunday for him. It was too late, I had to drive fast so that I wouldn’t be late for my 9am meeting. The phone rang. My husband asked, “Did you get a ticket?”

I described the watch I was wearing to my husband, a guardian angel watch with an inscription on the back. I had no doubt that several guardian angels swirled around me at 8:25 as the officer took my driver’s license.

When my meeting ended, rain was flowing like a lawn sprinkler. I pulled a shawl over my head stopping at a market to pick up something for dinner. The butcher said, “It’s raining, be careful out there.” Rain pounded my car all the way home.

On Sunday morning, the wind whined like rolling turbines on a jet engine. As the offering was being collected, I handed my husband $5 whispering, “This is for Officer Middleton*.” I silently prayed for him.

The officer said that he encouraged drivers to focus on driving instead of their GPS, cell phone or music on the radio.

Driving to the meeting, I thought of Psalm 91:11,

“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.”

Angels are all around us
(Photo courtesy of unsplash.com)

When I prayed for Officer Middleton*, I prayed for his protection. I try to remember to pray for first responders who risk their lives every day to serve the community. I give thanks for them. Even if I would have received more than a warning, I thank God for those who serve.

 

*Name changed

 

 

Christmas Lights

A man from Argentina looking for a dialysis center rang the door bell. I gave him directions to where he needed to go, silently praying for him as he walked back to his car.

A young girl asking for olive oil for a recipe rang the doorbell. I welcomed her into the kitchen, filling her measuring cup with more oil than she might need.

A woman asked for directions. I described how to get to the place she was looking for.

We decorate and light our homes in preparation for the coming of Immanuel. The light of Christ shines through us every time we open a door, pray a prayer for a stranger or give more than asked.

Someone recently described a GPS tool as God’s Positioning System. God’s system doesn’t black out in the darkness of tunnels or get interrupted by solar flares. God lights our paths equipping us to serve others for Him.

It is seven days before Christmas. God counts on each of us to light the path so that others will see his glory. Can he count on you?

Be the Light
Photo courtesy of unsplash.com

Hope for the Homeless Population

A memorial mass for a local homeless man framed our trip to Salt Lake City the day before we left town. The homeless man, hit and killed by a car in March on a busy Central Florida road was partly identified through his pockets full of Starbucks and Panera gift cards given to him by caring people who took time to get to know him. At the memorial service, a simple urn donated by a county memory garden contained the remains of this bearded, beloved to many, homeless man.

Our trip took us to Denver, CO, before boarding the California Zephyr Amtrak train to Salt Lake City. Four random Denver taxi drivers, all from Ethiopia, expressed their gratefulness to be living in the United States. There is a homeless population living on the streets of Denver. The California Zephyr’s route travels through majestic, yet desolate canyons, following the Colorado River. As we left Denver, many homeless people stood along the station’s railroad tracks.

Arriving in Salt Lake City, we observed homeless people of every age on street corners, sleeping in vacant building entrances, holding signs asking for assistance. I saw the face of the local homeless man reflected in each homeless person I encountered in Denver or Salt Lake City.

Homeless people are around us from coast to coast, living under bridges, trees, in woods, on streets, carrying belongings in borrowed shopping carts or in well worn garbage bags.

The day we flew home, news reports mentioned our local officials visiting Salt Lake City to observe best practices to help their homeless population. It is too late for the man hit by a car last March but a glimmer of hope is building for others. May the area officials respond in more generous and permanent ways to help the homeless community before more lives are tragically lost.

“Have I ignored the needs of the poor, turned my back on the indigent, taken care of my own needs and fed my own face while they languished? Wasn’t my home always open to them? Weren’t they always welcome at my table?” (Job 31:16-18, The Message)