Feeling: cool, tired, grey-moody under the slowly changing leaves. Anticipatory – autumn is here.

Seeing: Serious-eyed kids tallying numbers, chewing pencils, sipping tea; and the dog’s reproaches rising from the sunlight as she watches breakfast dishes soaking. Lists and papers, pens and ink-stained fingers. Monday-things.

Listening: To Friday I’m In Love, almost done; I really don’t care if Monday’s black..but it isn’t, it’s golden-autumn red and crisp green.

Tasting: smoky tea. I can almost taste the goldenrod in vases all around. Almost, but not quite.

Dreaming: Of good boots and linen skirts, shamefully materialistic, I want them all swishing around my ankles and clicking on the road-stones as I walk to the goat pen. Hair tied up, earrings dangling. Autumn dreams of beauty and abundance and gentle sounds.

Reading: Augustine who makes every little word sound like music, even when he’s wrong.

Praying: And praying, and praying for this poor aching world:

O Virgin, Holy Mother Cover,
We extol You as Your day approaches;
Encompass us beneath the veil
of Your protection, deliver us from
every form of evil by entreating Your Son,
Christ, our God,
that He may save our Souls.

Cultivating: Beauty. Can I make this home a more perfect refuge? Transplanting herbs for indoor-growing, stitching napkins, pouring tea. Making beauty a place down the birch-lined, gravel road.

What does your day look like today, friends?