I love November with its grey skies and brown sticks as the vibrant shades of October give way to the muted tones of the looming winter. Almost every day around 4pm I walk into our living room and say aloud, “I love the November sun.” Yet perhaps my favorite thing about November is how beautiful the weeds and forgotten garden stalks become against that grey sky.
November has been a strange month for us. We have traveled and traveled; we have been mourning and lamenting with so many we love. Mainly we are just trying to keep up. And as such, I find myself in the weeds.
I have become a person who misses deadlines. I don’t know how it has happened but here we are. I have three big projects for the upcoming launch of Peace in the Dark, projects I have a lot of excitement about, yet I just can’t get them across the finish line. I have quarterly reports due for the kids1-a deadline I set in the middle of August-and yep, I missed it this week. Honestly none of these deadlines are particularly crucial. I know I will get it all done in the next week or so and all will be well. The thing that I am more aware of is that despite our best efforts of living a slower paced life, I am not keeping up. I am in the weeds.
Today is the prep day for all of us cooking tomorrow’s feast. (I am always amazed when I hear stories of people responsible for one or two dishes. I have been cooking the whole feast by myself for almost 20 years.) We are battling colds and viruses and as such our guest list has dwindled and dwindled and turns out we are having just the five of us and no guests at all tomorrow. And I think that is exactly right as we all need a minute to catch our breaths.
The weeds aren’t a bad place to be. While it surely feels messy, goodness and beauty can be found there. We have had them in abundance this month: finding fossils along the Catskill Creek bed, watching dream come true moments through our kids eyes in Florida, one of the most delightful days with a dear friend, Josh finding a new show for us to watch, plant shopping with my brother, forest school, and overall a general easing of worries we have been carrying. It would be disingenuous to call the weeds bad. Sometimes we (I) just forget to look for the beauty.
I leave you with an excerpt from my favorite Thanksgiving hymn:
For the beauty of the earth,
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies—
Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn of grateful praise.
For the wonder of each hour,
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flow’r,
Sun and moon, and stars of light—
Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn of grateful praise.
May we remember that all of creation, even the weeds, praise the Creator and we get to do the same. May we look around and notice where we really are and how we really are. May we see beauty in the weeds and the forgotten. May gratitude lead us all the way.
And, as our favorite Thanksgiving book2 says, May all we feast upon have crisp edges and tender centers.
This coming Sunday, November 26th3 December 3rd begins the Advent season. I have put all my Advent prompts up here at The Table under their own tab (You will see it on the top of the page) for you to use and share. It’s available for anyone as a gift as we wait over these coming weeks.
Peace to you and yours.
Peace in the Dark releases Jan 30th. As we know pre-orders are important to the sales of books so any pre-order placed is so deeply appreciated.
A little fact that I don’t spend a lot of time talking about publicly is that I homeschool our three kids. In NYS you must turn in quarterly reports to the school district.
Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende Devlin
Edited for accuracy. ooph.