The First of October

Fall is officially here. I officially needed a jacket to run over to the grocery this morning and there was officially apple cider and pumpkins displayed at the front of said grocery. It is a beautiful time of year in more than the aesthetic sense. People are getting ready for winter. It's in the air, it's in the step of the fellow grocery shopper, it's in the bright eyes and smiles. Winter is coming and that gives everyone something to prepare for. It's a curious thing how purpose, even simple, common ones, give everyone life.

As for myself, I've started contemplating Christmas presents and even begun to work on a few. I'm making the effort of homemade gifts this year. I'm not sure if every gift will be homemade (in fact, I highly doubt it. Some people have no interest in receiving homemade gifts which rather defeats the purpose), but I do want all the ones that should be to be homemade.

I'm also pretty please that I've got enough of this housekeeping thing under my belt that it allows me to prepare for the holiday season fairly easily. Mom and I are planning and Autumn Party (which is at her house so it really has nothing to do with how I keep my own, but it does let me have the time and peace to plan). I'm really hoping my sister-in-law and I get the chance to make Christmas candy together but either way, homemade Christmas candy shall be had. (Can you tell I've been reading British writers the last couple of days? I think it's seeping into my thinking and therefore my writing.) I'm really excited to have people over for dinner parties, too. Not very many people, just six or so at a time. I prefer only having the number of people I can personally appreciate at dinner parties. I find that way we can really talk and come to understand each other, where as with large groups everyone is just putting on their public face. If I wanted to interact with peoples public faces I would join them at a public party, not invite them into my home.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

It is the first of October. Dustin and I have finally reached a point in Columbus where we have established community. Community in a city is very exciting to me. I hadn't been entirely convinced it existed when we moved here. Indeed, in some places in this city, it doesn't. People merely function beside one another. But there are pocket of community. It's different in a small town where people are constantly aware of everyone else's business whether you want them to be or not. In a city, you have to thrust your business before everyone else if you want anyone to care. Some will still not care. But there are the few that will and it is with them that you can draw close and create a semblance of that small town feeling. You just have to work a little harder at it. It must be intentional because it will not exist on accident, but it is not impossible.

So I am excited to share this season with our community because fall is so much about drawing close and preparing for the winter when you must keep warm, both in the body and in the heart. I am excited to share their traditions and rituals that help them mark life and observe the sacred. I think winter is an amazing back drop to our holiday seasons. It is in the midst of the world's death that men celebrate life. Granted, men celebrate in spring as well, but not with the same ferocity.

I am excited to share that ferocity with others.