How have we arrived at the last month of fall? September seemed like summer, and October was an Autumn Delight. Such is life. We wonder how we got so old, and this is how it happened. As we lunched with Margo and Jeff on Tuesday, we insisted that they had stayed with us two years ago. Jeff recalled that it was three years ago. We had lost a year in the shuffle. Seasons are fleeting measurements of our life’s walk. We receive four per year, and a year flies by. Thanksgiving is in a week. It looked so far away in the heat of July. Then comes Christmas four weeks later.

The rain was cold this morning in the Woods. Battalions of leaves fell in the windy, wet. The deer were skittish as the hunting days begin tomorrow. ‘Don’t the humans know that we enjoy Thanksgiving too?’ Fredi asked his mom. ‘You have pumpkin pie in the oven, and it is Margo’s favorite. ‘It is nerve-racking hiding from the hunters just before we celebrate with family and friends around the Thanksgiving table,’ Fredi said. ‘Tom Turkey told me that he and Matilda were coming to Thanksgiving dinner if they did not get shot,’ Freddi said woefully.

‘I say that there must be a better way,’ Mr. Badger proclaimed. ‘Open Season on our lives as dwellers of the Wood just before we sit down to give thanks for our blessings,’ Mr. Badger noted. ‘Bambi was crying this morning when she saw the hunters getting out of their big truck with orange vests on,’ Mr. Badger said. ‘Jerry and Elaine Squirrel will not leave their tree home until it’s over,’ Mr. Badger disclosed. ‘As Clark Griswold noted in Christmas Vacation that Eddie eats Squirrels,’ Badger said. ‘Elaine said that she is rethinking Thanksgiving as it is not safe in the Wood any longer,’ Badger observed.

‘I do not see well, but I hear the report of the guns,’ Mr. Mole said. ‘When I am out of my Den, I can not determine where the shots are coming from, and I do not own an orange vest,’ Moley noted. ‘I get so scared that I lose my spectacles and can not find them in the fallen leaves,’ Moley said. ‘I am bringing roasted chestnuts to the Thanksgiving Dinner if I can find my glasses,’ Moley noted.

‘Welcome all and come right in, it is dry and warm in the shelter,’ the Preacher said. ‘Today is Thanksgiving, although we live in frightening times of war and strife, and we will eat a dinner of fellowship for all of God’s creatures,’ the Preacher continued. ‘Those who have plenty and safety, warmth and comfort will not understand the plight of we who know deprivation, want and fear,’ the Preacher noted. ‘We are the poor of the land, those who have hope beyond our circumstances,’ the Preacher proclaimed. ‘Today we will love each other and eat a good meal while we work to end the suffering of our friends,’ the Preacher said. ‘Fear and Peace walk the rocky road of life with each of us; we must decide to choose peace,’ the Preacher said softly.