Shade Tree wisdom 9/23/11

          Cool this morning with just a slight breeze as befitting the first day of fall.  It reminds me of nippy air and a bite to the wind, and the end of the summer growing season, for now the harvest is in full swing.

          One of the chores for the fall days was gathering the potato crop.  We hurried home from school, changed into work clothes, and went out to gather that crop where it lay in long furrows, left there by the potato digger.  This machine, horse drawn, dug the potato, shook the earth from them, and left them in long rows to be gathered into the wagon.  Long shadows showed night was near, and when the wagon was filled, Dad drove it next to the special window in the basement, so we could send them tumbling into the special cold bin in the basement for storage.  That had to be finished before night, because frost was in the offing, and they could not be touched by frost, for that would ruin the crop, and our winter eating.

          And that poem by James Whitcomb Riley always springs to mind.
     “When the frost is on the punkin and the fodders in the shock,
     And you hear the kyouk and gobble of the strutting turkey cock.

     Oh, it’s then the time a feller is a-feelin’ at his best,
     With the risin’ sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest.”

          With the coming of Fall in its season the year starts to near its end, and it is time for some ruminating and contemplating about our life, is it still under God’s care, are we still practicing and living our faith, have we grown, and are our lives enriched by deep study, careful thought, living experiences?

          We pray, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all his benefits.”.

GPD 9/23/11