Peace was the word for today. Cool breezes and autumn leaves. The Old Man got right in for a haircut. The white hair wafted downward. I told my barber that MJ says I had black hair when we got married. I told her I thought it had been brown. She said that her hair had gone prematurely white. She does not like people to call her hair gray. I remember Earl laughing and telling me that he saw a pronounced bald spot on my head as we rode the ski lift at Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I was in my 30s. In those halcyon days, I had quite a bit of gray hair.

So we wonder if our bodies have a soul. The reality is that we are a soul that has a body. I have been in the presence of several people as they died. Nothing is more evident than that once they expire, they are not in the bed before you any longer. We make decisions regarding those we meet from how their body looks. We have missed the mark. The person is on the inside of their body looking out.

So it goes as we enter fall. A settled feeling permeates the air. We are ready for what is to come. Health and happiness, as well as challenges and days in the Valley. All are on the rollercoaster ride we are on. The Grand Experiment has not been revealed. A Veil is separating us from the next stage of existence. Peace of place surrounds us. A magnificent story is unfolding and we are in the middle of the narrative. First, our children were born, and we joyfully brought the babies home. Were we the first to experience parenthood and the joys and challenges of the journey? The kids mature and finally take care of us. What a circle. Is time linear or is it a circle? Have you ever been to a new place and felt like you had been there before? Have you met a stranger and sensed in your bones that you had shared secrets? We are in the middle of a massive mystery. Those who say they have the answer avoid.

The message of Christ is to love others as I have loved you. Christ loved the poorest of the poor, the leper and the stranger. Jesus came to us clothed in flesh as we are. If you are a Christian, you ascribe to the belief that he is the Son of God. He modeled how we should treat our brothers and sisters. As he wrote in the sand, the stoners of the woman caught in adultery walked away. What did he write? Christ’s critics called him a friend of publicans and sinners and a winebibber.