Skip to main content

November

The barn into which we gathered our harvest
Outlined by the November sunset, reminds us:
What's done is done
What's not done is not done and will not be
Not this time
The season for growing is over 

The trees stand on ceremony
Few of their leaves  
Each painted
By the palette of the Divine Artist
Still clinging to limbs
They wait for the inevitable
When winter's winds will strip what's left
Of what Spring wrought on their branches
When the season was full of promise

November's love for us is unrequited
Until that time
When November is all we have that remains
When there is nothing left to gather into the hayloft
And we will wonder:
Will it be enough
To satisfy the Master of the Harvest
Who does not reveal 
How He will weigh the fruits of our labor?

The sun sets over the fields
Marked by monuments of granite and marble
Engraved with the names of the laborers
Who have set aside their plows
And entered into their rest
Listening for our prayers
That beckon the Master
To measure with kindness
What has been reaped
By the fields they have sown

We look and listen in earnest
For a sign
Any sign
That will let us know
They have safely reached home
But the only voices we hear in return
Are those in our memories, asking us
If we have done enough
To love November as we should










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Mothers of Holy Saturday

As you go about your Easter Sunday festivities, spare a prayer and a thought for the women of Holy Saturday, those for whom the wait for a child to reappear is, or seems like it's in perpetuity.  There are mothers who are waiting for word on their children,  presumed to be held hostage in Gaza but not really knowing whether they are dead or alive.    There are mothers who have been separated from their children and don't know if their bodies are lying undiscovered beneath the rubble of Israel's bombs or may have safely made it to another country.  The mothers of Argentina still wait, decades later, for their children who seemingly vanished simply for having the courage to voice their opposition to a murderous regime.   There are other mothers who don't get much sympathy (nor do they ask) for their children whose whereabouts are unknown.  I know, because I was once one of them and by God's love and mercy have I been spared what so many are still living.  We are mothe
Post a Comment
Read more

Not to Be

You never had a day that was all about you, until this one There would be no ring placed on your finger by a suitor No surprise planned by bridesmaids to shower you with gifts  No walk down the aisle in white lace, clinging to your beloved father's arm A cascade of flowers falling from your hand It was not to be Still you remained hopeful and never bitter I thought about this as I waited for your hearse to arrive at the cemetery The only time in your life when a hired black car would bring you to the place Where you would be the center of everyone's attention A public appearance planned to the last detail As you would have wanted Except for this You were never "fashionably late" for anything and I thought how you would not have liked this Keeping the guests waiting on a sunny but chilly November day I remembered the words of my favorite Emily Dickinson poem About how after death "a formal feeling comes" And this was the "hour of lead" It came like
Post a Comment
Read more

Christ is at the door, with a quart of Budweiser?

One of my favorite passages from the writings of Servant of God Catherine de Hueck Doherty relays the time her parents hosted a tea for Russian dignitaries.  Her father was a Russian diplomat and there were several hundred invited guests at their home.  Catherine recalled that she was nine at the time and was permitted to attend, the social dressed to the nines and serving cakes.   A butler interrupted a conversation between her father and one of his prestigious guests with the announcement: "Christ is at the door."  Everything came to a standstill while her parents rushed to serve the man she described as a hobo.  They set down the finest linen and china and although she recounted that they had 14 servants in the house, her mother and father personally did the serving.  She described this episode as an excellent lesson in Christianity, watching her parents put their faith in action.   I think of this from time because of a homeless man who has "resided" in our neig
Post a Comment
Read more