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…

Summer has ended according to the temperature. Tonight promises a low of 34 degrees and tomorrow’s low will be well below freezing. In our neck of the woods, it seems to get cold…overnight. I went to see my friend…Electric Larry…this afternoon. He has the most interesting old Pop and nostalgic items. I kept fingering and admiring some small alabaster pieces and thinking that they reminded me of something. They were in the nicest little wicker basket. After nearly an hour of shopping, it dawned on me that the tiny soldiers were chess pieces. MJ and I had a wonderful set of Turtle Doves made of alabaster when we first were married. We purchased them at Famous Barr and were so proud of their acquisition. They probably were $15 or $20 dollars in the 1970s…but they were fine art to us. So I left EL with a handsome wicker basket of Alabaster Aztec Chess Pieces. Now they will soon have a field of battle with the hand-tooled leather chessboard that I just completed purchasing from Etsy.

Happiness is elusive. It always has been. Our Declaration of Independence promises us the right to pursue happiness…it does not assure us that we will catch the energetic elf… At times we are a bit too wrapped up in the pursuit of ‘My Precious’ as the literary character, Gollum, from The Lord of the Rings. ..as he sought the powerful ring. So it is with our time and place. We know if we eat the best foods and wear the finest of clothes and take the best holidays…we will find our hiding friend of happiness. If we are unhappy with ourselves…we travel as a panacea to find our happy personas. We have a good job…but we know that we would be happy…if we could just receive a promotion. If we have the automobile that we always wanted…soon our eyes are full of the next step-up in driving pleasure.

Why would anyone want to be the President of the United States? I wonder if this question has not occurred to each of the men who have held the office… Television has assured us…for my entire life…that to be happy you need to buy the right soap…use the right deodorant…drink the right soft drink…and of late we know that we would feel much happier if we just could convince our doctor to give us the right pharmaceutical.

People make me happy. A smile from another human being…warms my heart. Genuine concern for my well-being…brings laughter and lightness off being… But…what makes me happy without fail…is to help someone. Not to assess their needs on a scale of 1 to 10…but to reach out a hand of fellowship to those who have not felt any kindness…in a long time… When I hear the testimonials of children who are suffering from cancer…and I witness their courage…I wonder as the parking attendant asked me in the garage in Philedelphia, ‘What you crying about…Mon?’

Billy B. woke up in his nice warm bed with the two quilts that his Grandma Askew had made for him…and remembered the glories and scares of Halloween…the night before. He looked over at his plastic orange pumpkin that contained all of his candy and popcorn ball treasures from the revelries of All Saints Day.

Why three houses had even given him a dollar…and the house at the end of Illinois Avenue had given him a five-dollar bill… Billy B. had only carried a five-dollar bill on a few occasions and he remembered the last one…when he and his mom had accompanied his cousin, Brenda, to see her fiance, Danny, at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Brenda and Danny were sweethearts and Billy B. thought that the Sun rose and set in Brenda’s smile. She had been his babysitter on Friday nights when his mom had gone out with a boyfriend to the Honky Tonk..and drank Slo-Gin Fizzes. They had enjoyed the Science Fiction Theatre on television. So, Billy B. went to the Ben Franklin Dime Store at Fort Leonard Wood and purchased a Blackbeard Model. He loved Monster Models and he thought that Edward Teach would be a welcome addition to his growing collection.

Monday morning…felt like Sunday to Billy B… The telephone rang and it was Chet on the line. ‘Are you ready for the big night,’ Chet asked? ‘Well…did you forget that we already had it,’ Billy inquired? Chet replied, ‘Not yet…this is Sunday, October the 31st…and it is time to party!’ Billy B. shook himself to wake up from a bizarre dream…but he was still talking to Chet. ‘Chet…do you recall that we canvased all of Illinois Avenue and that the house at the end of the street gave you and I and Jane and Sally and Daryl…a five-dollar bill…each?’ ‘Yes I do say Chet…and then the old woman asked us to come in and sit a spell…and warm ourselves from the cold…and we did.’ ‘I remember her bringing out a large hourglass and placing it on the coffee table in front of us,’ said Billy B. ‘Do you recall that we all became very sleepy…and the old woman said that little devils like us should be able to enjoy Halloween…always,’ asked Chet?

Crisp…and cold would best describe Sunday, October 31, 1963. The Vietnam War was preparing to become a war of devastation for Vietnam…and the United States. President Kennedy would be cut down by an assassin’s bullet in less than a month. Billy B. and his fellow grade-school classmates were accustomed to practicing, ‘Duck And Cover…as the possibility of a nuclear strike on Eldorado, Illinois could happen at any time. A sad Thanksgiving came in November 1963… Uncertainty and unimaginable loss and a future that looked dark and foreboding…was what was happening in ‘Real-Time.’

Billy B. and Chet and Jane and Sally and Daryl…set about planning their Halloween…1963…it was much less frightening…than what was to come…

So, October is in its last 2 and 1/2 hours. It has been good…and it has gone by fast. I began the month meeting two icons of my youth, Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow, Beaver and Wally Cleaver from the television show…Leave It To Beaver. The leaves have finally realized some brilliant color…and the next two months will go more quickly than the last two…if that is possible. Twenty-Twenty One has rushed by with the rapidity of a Weaver’s Shuttle. I have the Covid 19 vaccination and the Pfizer Booster shot…and still do not feel safe from the plague of our time. Our Pandemic has dominated our attention and resources…and lives…for two years. We have yet to witness or understand the permanent changes that this scourge has wrought.

New Normal is vital to our mental health and our survival as a species. The Holiday Season is upon us and we need all of its gifts. The grateful heart of Thanksgiving is less than a month away. MJ is in the middle of planning our Thanksgiving feast and the gathering of our family…that she has been hosting for over 30 years. She loves Thanksgiving! Over our 43 years together our family has enjoyed some wonderful Thanksgiving holidays. Contrary to the days when I was a child and the Thanksgiving holiday was watching the Macys Day Parade on TV. The rest of the day was devoted to planning for Christmas. On Thanksgiving, we gather from our many walks in life and realize that we are much more alike than we are different. We soak up the love from those we are with. We feel the warmth of our shared experiences and know that we really are on the same journey…

This morning at church we had a wonderful woman teach us some deep breathing techniques and some tools for meditation. As she spoke in a soothing and kind manner I thought that we really do often miss the forest for the trees. We live in an ultra-stressful world with mega demands on our time and our talents and our thoughts. We fail to take time for our own physical and mental and emotional needs. We seem to not have the bit of time that we need…to breathe properly. Our stomachs hurt from nervous stress. We have headaches from overloading our brains to continue to perform on the Hamster Wheel of life… We regularly endeavor to change many things that we have no power to change.

Christmas Trees are in order…from now forward… Focus on all that makes our lives bright and cheerful and magical and mystical…should be thought about daily…every day. ‘As a man thinketh…so is he.’ Our thoughts do make a difference in how we perceive the world and how we construct our reality. Our church, First Presbyterian Church, captivated my attention when I saw how well they did Christmas. We began attending near Thanksgiving in 1998. Shortly after that…was Advent and the trimming of the Christmas Tree in the narthex…as soon as I discovered what the narthex was… We attended a Christmas Eve service that began at 11:00P:M:…and concluded at midnight. I swore that I saw Tiny Tim…and Bob Cratchitt.

The observance is magic. Tradition is renewing and recharging and good for the weary soul. We are a bit like the new electric automobiles…we have to re-charge…at points along our journey back home…