Enough for Today
The sign read: There are two seasons; Autumn and Waiting for Autumn.
Funny but it’s somewhat true. Here it is just after the autumnal equinox, the day when theoretically day and night are just about equal.
In January till March and April I’m planning my garden, but thinking of harvest. From May and onward we’re planting our garden, tending our garden, and planning on the harvest. At this point in the year, we are rejoicing over the harvest and… Our garden is still producing and the song Summertime comes to the mind and could come to the lips if singing it were possible. Summertime and the living is easy…
Summertime and the livin’ is easy
Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high
Oh, your daddy’s rich and your ma is good lookin’
So hush, little baby, don’t you cry
One of these mornings
You gonna rise up singin’
Yes, you’ll spread your wings
And you’ll take to the sky
Mm, but ’til that morning
There is nothin’ can harm you
Yes, with daddy and mommy standin’ by
And so you have it. In a nutshell, this time of year (yes, I know it says Summertime but autumn is the real queen here) when nature is producing her bounty and we’re living in the ‘high cotton’ of the year.
I’m not forced to run the air conditioner because of the oppressive high heat, neither are we needing to heat the house because of the cold. The tomatoes, squash, melons, and garden abundance is all around us.
Every year at this time I’m also reminded of the poem by the New England poet James Whitcomb Riley, The Frost is on the Punkin…
Most of us have forgotten the story of the First Thanksgiving. How after the death of nearly half of the original Pilgrims those first settlers struggled to learn to farm and grow enough food for themselves to survive. That year they were joined with the Indians who had helped them learn survival skills coming together to give thanks.
Pumpkins…and The Fodder’s in the Shock are two staple foods pumpkins and (corn) fodder for those first settlers.
Of course by James Whitcomb Riley’s time in New England, there was a blending of the new world and the old world. The local bounty that the land provided plus the old-world animals and crops; milk cows and their abundance, the turkeys and chickens and old-world fowls and crops such as wheat, barley, rye.
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin’ turkey-cock,
And the clackin’ of the guineys, and the cluckin’ of the hens,
And the rooster’s hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it’s then’s the times a feller is a-feelin’ at his best,
With the risin’ sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.
There are several more stanzas if you would like to read the whole poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44956/when-the-frost-is-on-the-punkin
It is still one of the wonders of my world how this time of year feels like a peaceful rest. Yes, it’s a time of gathering in, of making use of those blessings God gives us, and also a time for thanksgiving.
As the rays of sunshine fall softly around us shimmering like golden drops as the snow in the snow globe glitters when the snow falls. These are the tent door moments.
The old Eskimo woman told the reporter, ‘It isn’t winter I fear. In winter I’m at the ready, pitting my will against the harsh weather. No, it’s summer when it’s peaceful and warm and I sit by my tent door, lulled into the serene dream. It’s so easy to be lured into thinking—or not thinking. I’m afraid I’ll just fall asleep and not think to wake up.’
Ecclesiastes 7:10 Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.
14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.
Ecclesiastes 8:15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.
