And a time for every purpose under heaven

We're about to enjoy what might be the nicest week or ten days of this autumn. Unless, of course, the forecast changes. I plan to spend some time outside about every day doing yard chores such as moving leaves off of grassy areas and dumping them in the woods or mulching them with the mower; or pruning dead branches before they get a chance to fall on my head. This may well be the week to get this year's pumpkins, too.

October is pumpkin time

Photo by J. Harrington

This year's election will be all over but the counting 30 days from now. May we never have another campaign season like the one we're in the midst of. Funny thing though. I've been rereading Aaron McGruder's Public Enemy #2 book and lots of the comic strips about the 2004 election and some about voter suppression would fit today if we but changed some names. Much of what we're suffering, from the ways we allow our politics to be conducted, has been made worse but isn't new. That's both disgusting and depressing.

Meanwhile, leaves change colors, days get shorter, temperatures progress downward, and ghosts, goblins, spirits and wraiths get restless as their night of nights approaches. Let's not let all the joys of life be dampened by the drips from our stormy political arena. Since today is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, be  sure to be especially kind to your pets and other animals you may encounter, even politicians. Kent Nerburn has written a wonderful and inspirational book, Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace: Living in the Spirit of the Prayer of St. Francis, that I read several years ago. In these times, with our current customs, I should reread it. You might find it makes living your life more satisfying if you read it too. Here's a copy of the prayer on which  the book is, in part, based.

Peace Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy. 

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive, 
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, 
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

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