Notes from the Pew

I have a love/hate relationship with daylight savings time:  "falling back" in the moment feels glorious and mischievous, you have stolen an hour from the time gods; but then you remember the darkness that descends by 4:00 and one feels like Persephone, minus the dead daughter.

I have been cranky, as of late, with a hair trigger.  I was happily blaming it on perimenopausal hormonal shifts until my latest physical showed no hormonal changes.  Why oh why am I so persnickety?  Could it be the upcoming dearth of Vitamin D?

This morning, to prepare for a religious education lesson I had to round up the following items:  foil, small rock, stick, chalice, book, stuffed animal, dinner plate, hiking boot, first-aid kit, and a wooden bowl.  Did you know that Dr. Albert Schweitzer was a Unitarian?  He also had a very impressive moustache.  Those items had something to do with his story.  Additionally, I had to find and tear up material for bandages so we could re-create a hospital environment....we also needed pillows and sleeping bags.  Not to bore you too much, but in the frenzy of gathering up 40 props, I forgot the actual curriculum and had to tear home to retrieve that during "joys and sorrows.'  Flow like a river.

I made it to coffee hour, where I learned that my son was off doing community service somewhere in town with his class, no idea where and no idea when he might return.  Viola...return and magnification of faux perimenopausal symptoms.  And then, I noticed the light in Parish Hall:

I had the time and space to notice the light.

My friend/brother Mike who is a gifted photographer talks about the "magic hour" when the light is just starting to fade but everything is paradoxically as clear as it ever gets:

On a run around Dean Park, I had the time and space to notice the light.

So, as we begin our descent into the darkness of  New England winter months, remember the light.  We have to take the time to find it.