Goldenrod & a Golden Ring

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“The Lord is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The LORD is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.”
~ Psalm 145:8-9

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Things that made me (very) happy in September:

The first bite into a honeycrisp apple

September goldenrod

Jon Foreman’s newest album, In Bloom, which I’m late to listen to but has a summer’s-end sound

The pastor at the coffee shop hosting a Bible study, who acted with so much grace on the guy who spilled coffee all over him

Sarah Rowell’s series on her favorite old ladies

The first morning run with chilled arms

A long Labor Day to be outside, in the grass, at the pond, on the volleyball court and patio, drinking coffee and eating cake and shooting bows till dark

Cool Sunday evening for kneading bread: the dough thumping, knuckles popping, kid voices echoing out in the growing darkness

Sourdough pancakes with sliced strawberries on top

The first Inklings meeting of the semester

Collecting seeds from the September garden

All the different types of nuts that fall in September: walnut, acorn, and hickory

After weeks of drought, a rain and damp wind through the screen, rattling the lampshade

Pickleball in the driveway after dark

6am baking, when the kitchen is dark and silent and warm

Lila singing “Holy, Holy, Holy”

When all the girls drove to visit the boys on their fishing-camping trip; Hudson running up the path with a flopping catfish on a string

Little boys in ballcaps with their heads and hands out the truck windows

Mom and I going to the senior adult luncheon, visiting with Bill and Marilee and Barb about growing things in the fall garden

. . .

A hurried walk to the pond on a Tuesday afternoon only to be stopped in my tracks by Papa’s picnic table set with flowers and candles; walking right back home, so shocked was I

Returning to the pond to water a yellow mum and finding Jared; running to meet him

A long and beautiful journal entry he read to me on Papa’s dock, then the question he asked me down on one knee and with all his heart

The ring—yellow gold and perfect, a little like Mom’s

Pizza and engagement pictures

Dangling our legs off the dock, drinking in the last of the day, and letting our engagement sink in, then looking up the hill to see Papa and Mema’s lights on

The first, fresh wedding plans

Telling the story at church again and again (and how it still hasn’t grown old)

Coffee and breakfast at Undergrounds with everyone and Mindy, too

One party after the next: brownies and cupcakes and cookie cake to celebrate—the outpoured love of our families and the saints

Engagement pictures with Annette at sunset in the Arkansas prairie; brown grasses nodding and the sun blushing hot

When Jared announced from the pulpit that they’d be getting a pastor’s wife, and how they all cheered

Morning commutes to take him to work, then meeting for lunch at Carol Ann Cross Park

The place where the trees bend over the road and touch fingertips

Reading Ephesians together at sunrise

How God changes the earth in seasons, from August to September, how he changes me in seasons too, and how he will continue to fashion me into Christ’s likeness “so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7)

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