A symphony of permanence and change.

That's how Bonaro W. Overstreet described October. I like it.

Today was really an autumn day for me: I turned off my A/C last night and cracked a window and I wore a jacket to work for the first time since last spring. The days are getting shorter and although the weather is still beautiful, the end of a terrific summer season, both for weather and in the lives of the Offering faithful, is nigh.

Here are a few autumn thoughts for you today, in the spirit of the upcoming month of October and the upcoming weekend fall celebration which always ranks up there among my favorites- Homecoming and football.

All-cheering Plenty, with her flowing horn, Led yellow Autumn, wreath'd with nodding corn.
-Robert Burn, from Brigs of Ayr

It was Autumn, and incessant Piped the quails from shocks and sheaves, And, like living coals, the apples Burned among the withering leaves.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Pegasus in Pound

Every season hath its pleasure; Spring may boast her flowery prime, Yet the vineyard's ruby treasuries Brighten Autumn's sob'rer time.
-Thomas Moore, Spring and Autumn

Sorrow and the scarlet leaf, Sad thoughts and sunny weather; Ah me! this glory and this grief Agree not well together!
-Thomas W. Parsons, A Song for September

Autumn for me is a daily reminder of some of the best years of my life, when I lived in the most spectacular place in the country during the fall- central Vermont. The weather was utterly awful for most of the year there, but for about 6 weeks in the fall, it was the most pleasant place I have ever been. Okay, enough about the seasons.

Songs of the Day- Green Onions, by Booker T and the MGs, and Temptation, by Billy Joel. I heard that one this morning on my way out, and haven't heard it in a long time. It's a good one.

"I never claimed to be a hero and I never said that I was a saint."

Have a good Thursday.