We are welcoming in another gloomy day. It is cloudy with a misty type of rain and 54°. It is supposed to be this way all day. Days like this, especially when they come in multiples, can really affect one's spirit and emotional state of mind if we let it. Perhaps that is why God sent some extra bright red Cardinals to the feeders this morning. They are a beautiful contrast to the picture around them. I have a couple of Goldfinches out there this morning too and of course, my Downy Woodpecker. Perhaps tomorrow will be a dryer and brighter day. But I'm grateful for my feathered friends being out there and turning "dismal" into "thank you Lord".

Lots and lots of the leaves have fallen from my poplar trees but I haven't had a chance to get any of them cleaned up. Now, of course, they are soggy aand heavy. I'm hoping for some sunny days to dry them out and then I'll get out there and get busy. There are four little flowers still clinging to life on the phlox. Everything else is done. So, it is time to cut all of that back as well as the peonies, iris, and petunias. Then it is time to store the extra chairs I have here in the sunporch and bring ing the potted plants for the winter. The problem is that I'm a lot slower at getting it all done these days than I used to be.

Today is visitation day for my shut-ins, as well as the day we go to the churches and run the Sunday bulletins off. This evening will be choir practice at one church and craft night at the other. Tomorrow I have a clergy breakfast and then go spend a few hours at the hospital waiting with the family of a parishioner while she goes through her cancer surgery. We certainly pray this surgery will eliminate her cancer. God's will be done.

I was working on worship services last evening and it was hard to beluve that it was services for November that I was working on. It seems that we just kind of walk along doing our day by day and suddenly a bunch of time has passed. It seems it was summer and now it is November and sixty days untill Christmas. We have another vacation planned the second week of December which will really choke the clock and press us for time. Then before we know it, --- 2015 will be a reality.

So, what are we to do? I reckon our best course of action is to keep our head up and face each day and look forward to the next with a joyful heart. We need to be grateful for every day that God gives us on this earth. Crap will happen but God will walk you through it. You can't get milk without poop in the barnyard. So, love one another, hold on to one another, thank God for the people in your life and the blessings and joy they bring. Have a most blessed day. Remember that somebody prayed for you today ---- me!