Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the sea resound, and all that is in it.
Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them;
let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. – Psalm 96:11-12

Sunday here in Tarboro was simply a spectacular day. When I got up it was forty-six degrees and my morning walk around the common blazed with the glory of fall. Later in the day, liquid gold sunshine poured and splashed over everything and we walked to an afternoon garden-party with temperatures in the low-mid 60’s.

Strolling half a block to church in the morning for beautiful worship, sweet fellowship and an inspirational message.

Then walking the half mile to our friend Kathy’s birthday, kicking through the deep piles of leaves, visiting so many good people on Bernice’s front lawn, looking around another beautifully restored historic home before sauntering back through the park.

These are the days poets laud and psalmists praise.

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay. - Robert Frost

Meanwhile, as the poets are lauding and the psalmists offering praise, I get to live here. So I breathe in the cool November air, look up into the golden-red canopy under the Carolina-blue sky, and kick my feet through the piles of leaves in gratitude because I am alive.

This, I think, is the greatest gift, this gift of the new day and the next breath, with eyes wide, heart grateful and spirit open to take it all in.

Let the Earth rejoice! Let the heavens be glad! – I know that I am – DEREK