-John Donne
I love the fall, especially since moving out East. Here the fall means a respite from humidity, gorgeous autumnal leaves, and apple picking. It also means the glorious chance to sleep in on Daylight Savings day. Best of all, it is the gateway to the holiday season and usually means planning a trip to California in the near future to see my family.
This is my very first Connecticut Autumn, and I am so impressed! It is SO BEAUTIFUL.
As I recover, I've been able to take some nice walks to acquaint myself with our new town and, although I don't have a professional camera or anything close to it, I snapped a few photos.
These are from downtown, right by the courthouse! YES! A duckpond, bridge, and waterfall in front of the courthouse! And all the Philly courthouse has nearby is a 7-11...and junkies...
And these are from a nearby nature reserve where I like to take little hikes:
And how fortunate to have a nature reserve that abuts the Long Island Sound! Lovely!
Finally, it turns out that I married a Halloween curmudgeon. He's the Scrooge of Halloween. But that makes it all the more impressive that he bought us these dried and naturally died gourds, cut into little Jack-o-Lanterns at an artisan fair we stopped at in Mystic, CT, on our honeymoon! (Aww! xoxo!)
Here is the really nice, full Donne quote (captioned at the beginning of post), from Sermons Preached on Christmas Day--
"IF I should declare what God hath done (done occasionally,) for my soul, where He instructed me for fear of falling, where He raised me when I was fallen, perchance you would rather fix your thoughts upon my illness, and wonder at that, than at God’s goodness, and glorify Him in that; rather wonder at my sins than at His mercies, rather consider how ill a man I was, than how good a God He is. If I should enquire upon what occasion God elected me, and writ my name in the book of life, I should sooner be afraid that it were not so, than find a reason why it should be so. God made sun and moon to distinguish seasons, and day and night, and we cannot have the fruits of the earth but in their seasons; but God hath made no decree to distinguish the seasons of His mercies; in Paradise, the fruits were ripe the first minute, and in Heaven it is always autumn, His mercies are ever in their maturity. We ask our daily bread, and God never says you should have come yesterday. He never says you must again to-morrow, but to-day if ye will hear His voice, to-day He will hear you. If some king of the earth have so large an extent of dominion in north and south, as that he hath winter and summer together in his dominions, so large an extent east and west as that he hath day and night together in his dominions, much more hath God mercy and judgment together; He brought light out of darkness, not out of a lesser light; He can bring thy summer out of winter, though thou have no spring; though in the ways of fortune, or understanding, or conscience, thou have been benighted till now, wintred and frozen, clouded and eclipsed, damped and benumbed, smothered and stupified till now, now God comes to thee, not as in the dawning of the day, not as in the bud of the spring, but as the sun at noon, to illustrate all shadows, as the sheaves in harvest, to fill all penuries, all occasions invite His mercies, and all times are His seasons."
