Searching for a Balance

 I just read this: Nothing is more repugnant to capable, reasonable people than grace. -   John Wesley

I am grateful for being able to cook much of the Thanksgiving food the day before, while I had a nauseous headache.  I'm grateful I was ...

The golden leaves which were on the cherry tree last Thursday, that glorious day, fell almost entirely off the next day, when the (normal) c...

Today is the last Sunday in the church year, next week being the first Sunday of Advent - already! Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Ha...

 Today was the dreamiest of days! Well up into the sixties and bright sun. Windows were opened, fresh air was welcomed in! A day to be remem...

 "The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to lo...

There is a group of bushes next to the grocery store entrance, and every week lately - for how long, I don't know because I haven't ...

 It's Veteran's Day. I'm still with How to Train a Fox, and I do want to finish it, even though it's dry and I haven't p...

  It's November - right now everything is a cross between old gold and faded orange and it's fantastic.

 O God of love, grant us your peace, Within each restless mind. May all our inner turmoil cease, God show us how to find Your quiet rest, yo...

 We've been having frosts at night. The other day I picked the rest of the little crops - I say "little" because it was all sm...

 It may have almost ten degrees cooler today, but the sun was bright, and before starting dinner I just had to go outside and walk in it. I ...

 Well, we had a record one hundred and eighty four kids come for candy tonight. But we still bought way too much candy, so the leftovers are...

 My brother came in the other day to say he'd seen a garden snake laying in a sunny patch of dirt, put down after the fellow finally cam...

 I'm still reading the book about domesticating foxes - I'd put it aside for a while in order to concentrate on the Coleridge book. ...

I lift my eyes to you, O Lord, Until you speak your promised word; Mine like the eyes of maids who stand Until the mistress waves her hand. ...

 I finally finished reading Malcolm Guite's Mariner, about Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner. If textbooks were ...

 The weather today turned a corner. They said it wouldn't reach sixty, and I dug out some fall-type clothes; I was waiting to feel like ...

 Well, I don't think I ever stayed away from blogging this long. My laptop finally stopped recognizing the wifi, so I had to buy a new o...

 I bought a calabaza squash at the supermarket; it was pretty big. After roasting it whole, it was well cooked inside after only an hour and...

"God calls us to freedom. But instead of being given to us instantaneously and in full measure, this freedom is built up progressively ...

I saw that a sprig of asters was growing inside the forsythia row near the back door.  It contained a multitude of dainty blooms.   

 I don't recall if I already said this, but our big garden was a bust this summer - my brother didn't roto-till it as early as usual...

 Reading my Bible last night, this intrigued me, a commentary on Luke, chapter 4 - which deals with the temptation of Jesus - by Bishop Rob...

 "The ways in which animals play had long been studied. Ornithologists had observed many types of bird play, such as when they hang ups...

 We're having the most lovely weather now, finally. Those insects or tree frogs or whatever they are are singing outside in the night, i...

 "Since the time of Adam's fall, God has this invariable strategy...to draw good out of evil...The cowardice of Pilate, the cunning...

 "The food we eat, our use of the world, the justice we bring, the art we make, these are the spaces in which the potency of God's ...

 These are the books I've been tackling lately. Mariner will take a while because it's thick, and because when I have time to read, ...

 It's Labor Day. So I'll be Laboring over the chicken thighs roasted with Brussels sprouts, the cornbread, and the zucchini fritters...

Someone gave this lovely basket to my brother filled with juicy tomatoes and even a dish towel. Very thoughtful.  Tonight I combined all the...