Chilly air feels especially cold…when you are not climatized to it. It is 50 degrees this afternoon and it feels like 46. Next month this will feel comfortable…but today it feels…cold. I have taken the Autumn Journey to Giant City State Park for almost every year of the past 20. Often I am somewhat disappointed with the lack of vibrant leaf color. This year I have been pleasantly surprised. I love the changing of the leaves…I love fall. I was born in the fall and my favorite holidays are in the fall… except for Christmas…but the Christmas Season is primarily in the fall… Cooler weather agrees with my demeanor. Autumn assures me that everything is possible…if I only believe…

Much of Illinois is flat land…but not Giant City…where the glaciers stopped and created the most lovely of hills and valleys. For nine years I was a member of a state-wide committee and my colleagues loved to have one of our quarterly meetings at Giant City. They said that the Park was the most picturesque part of our State. We would have our meeting in October and they would book the cabins on-site…and we would conduct our business in the Lodge as well as eat our meals. Giant City Lodge is featured in the movie, ‘Gone Girl,’ with Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. The Lodge has a wonderful all-you-can-eat chicken dinner on Sundays.

Time ticks by without interruption. At times we feel place-bound in our present circumstances…but we are constantly moving through our lives on earth. Nature provides us a glowing example of the changing of the seasons and the changing of our time. ‘Today is the tomorrow that we worried about yesterday.’

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‘Christmas is coming…the goose is getting fat…won’t you please put a penny in the old man’s hat. If you haven’t got a penny…a hay-penny will do…if you haven’t got a hay-penny…God Bless You.’ Mom sang this song to me all during the Christmas Season…and often when it was not the Season. The appearance of Christmas Trees in the stores…does not repel me…it gives me joy! Jonathon and I listened to a Christmas album by Norah Jones…she has a unique and lovely voice. I enjoy everything from the family dysfunction of the Chevy Chase Classic…Christmas Vacation…to the Christmas Moral of…Scrooge. Christmas is that time of year when those who are not usually warm to spreading joy and cheer…try to do so…anyway. It is a time when we notice the cold and the hungry and want to bring them in around the fireplace and feed them some pudding…

Let it be Christmas…all year…