“My needs are small, I buy them all at the 5 & 10-cent store. I’ve got plenty to be thankful for!”
Bing Crosby sings those words in Holiday Inn, 1942
The video wasn’t embeddable, but fun scene. Watch it! CLICK ABOVE.
A November Space
It’s November. I don’t know exactly why I tend to so expressly observe times and seasons and months like I do. I just need to understand the time I am in…what is it for?
They taught us that in elementary school: in September it is yellow school busses and rain galoshes and sharpened yellow pencils and cursive handwriting practice. Then came the jack-o-lanterns of October, coloring spooky houses and friendly ghosts on math worksheets.
“Over the river and through the wood to grandmother’s house we go,” got trotted out each November in music class. I couldn’t have dreamed I’d ever be a grandmother and to this day I trace my grandchildren’s hands and make “turkeys” just the way I learned to do it in Kindergarten a hundred years ago. November was thankfulness and cornucopias and the browns and oranges and deep golds of crispy leaves blowing along the curb while we walked to school.
I like to mark the times, the days, the seasons and this IS a month for gratefulness. So many things should be marked with an official “thank-you,” and sometimes in the hurried months we forget. So November comes and reminds me. That is what this time is for.
O God, you have been good. You have been faithful to all generations.
It’s November.
It’s topaz and crisp mornings and where did all these falling leaves come from? It’s pumpkin-everything and Thanksgiving time and ok to start watching Christmas movies now. It’s All-Saints-Day (count me in!) and sweaters and scarves and good friends and coffee and building altars of remembrance. It’s a good time to rest and enjoy from the abundance of the storehouses the blessings of God on the year.
It’s taking a deep breath and leaving a space for quietness and reflection. It’s leaving a space to live today, in this moment and not already stressed about the holidays and the crazed shopping and every possible thing that must be completed before the year comes to an end. You know that will just take all your joy, don’t you? It’s November – leave some space, just wait a bit…
The earth sinks to rest until next spring…
“November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.
With night coming early,
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.
The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring.” – Clyde Watson
Be careful, my sweets, not to rush into 2014 – not to begin making lofty plans or elevated goals for next year. This one isn’t over yet. November serves a purpose. It is not a month without noble intendment. There are things that need to rest until spring. Let them rest…