I’ve written before about the sadness that often settles in as fall comes round. That malaise is commonly present in September. Follow this link, scrolling to the second essay to read more about that Sad Season.
October is usually too busy to allow space in my mind for melancholy, with birthdays and the annual Jay Chapman Memorial Fund Golf Tournament, which, by the way, was the biggest and most successful in our 14 year history. We hosted 130 players, more sponsors than ever before, and raised nearly $14,000 dollars for teacher scholarships at The University of West Georgia and donations to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. You can read more about Jay and the Memorial fund here. About Jay
Although November is busy with Thanksgiving and early Christmas preparations it was touched this year with a tinge of apprehension. This is my first holiday season away from family and friends in Georgia. Travel and accommodation arrangements had to be made. I crammed as much into my car and the almost three week period as I could. I missed seeing the ocean every day and was glad to return to my new “home” when the time came.
While in Georgia it was wonderful to see family, friends, and my old neighborhoods, especially West End. I participated in an oral history interview about that area including discussion of my home, family, church, and schools. No word yet on when the documentary will be made available, but you can be sure I’ll let you know. The cool, crisp fall day, stepping on those old hexagonal-stoned sidewalks covered in crackle-ly leaves and acorns, under towering old trees, a stunning blue sky scribbled by their bare branches, and smelling the scents of fall school days, brought back a nostalgia unmatched by any other place in time. I’ve written about West End before too. Go here to read the first essay. West End
This month I want to share a poem that strikes me as bittersweet. like the month of November. It’s by one of my favorite poets, Robert Frost. He published “My November Guest” in his first poetry collection, A Boy’s Will, in 1913. It aptly describes those days oft experienced in November that are opposite of the idyllic one I described above, yet beautiful in their own way. This poem is much deeper than it seems at a first reading as Frost personifies sorrow as his guest. I encourage you to read it more than once, and explore the analysis in this link.
My November Guest
Robert Frost
My sorrow, when she’s here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walks the sodden pasture lane.
Her pleasure will not let me stay.
She talks and I am fain to list:
She’s glad the birds are gone away,
She’s glad her simple worsted grey
Is silver now with clinging mist.
The desolate, deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so truly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
And vexes me for reason why.
Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell her so,
And they are better for her praise.
Still, November is traditionally a time of thanks. There is always something for which we can be thankful. Not just for the good, but for the trials of life as well. Read more about this concept here. Thankful for Good and Bad. Even the analysis of the poem in the previous link alludes to the idea that less than good times in life can be beneficial in unexpected ways. I am enamored with this song/video that also expresses this notion. This little boy will make you smile! It’s a Beautiful Day. May you experience true thanksgiving and beautiful blessings during this season.
Have you ever thanked God for an unpleasant experience? Share some of your thoughts in a comment below. What you contribute may be just the thing someone needs to hear.
c
Maybe the lowest time in my life was when my son, Daniel, now 32 and healthy, developed epilepsy at the age of 14 months. My parents had just divorced after 37 years of marriage and I was unemployed as the bank I had worked for 22 years was sold. I had never attended church but, overwhelmed, I found solace when I went to the local Methodist church, by myself, on Easter. I sat in the back crying softly, unsure how to pray but found the peace that only God can give.
I do thank God. I thank him for helping me find my faith. My sons and I were baptized eight years later. I try live a life of thankfulness; I thank God for our Daniel outgrowing his illness and for the wonderful life I have. Yes, there have been other heartbreaks but my faith and love of God has made them so much easier to handle.
Susan, what a beautiful example of thankfulness in all thing all things. Sometimes God brings us to our knees in order to raise us up.
Thank you for your November post, Janet. No matter the season, your posts always bring a smile to my face. What a giant, spiritual leap it would be to give thanks in all things. Knowing to do is so much easier than actually doing.
Yes Suzanne, that is so true. It is one thing to know in our mind what we should do but an entirely different thing to actually do it in our hearts.