Labor Day

tomato sauce

Last night it was comforter weather, with the temperature dropping down to the low 40s. I'm hoping a frost won't come for a few more weeks, but I'm ready if it comes early. Today was one of those gorgeous days in the 70s with fluffy white clouds sailing through the sky.

I was quite anxious last week about my ongoing writing project for The Saint John's Bible. I received the files of the images a few weeks ago and was pulled from volume two, Historical Books, into the final volume, Letters and Revelation. All I had to see was a list of the illumination names: "The Woman and the Dragon" and "The Cosmic Battle," to realize that this would be a challenge. The Book of Revelation.  Hmmm.

Additionally, there are a lot of text treatments in the "Letters" portion of the volume. What I saw on the pages were phrases like "the wages of sin are death," and "Therefore since we are justified by faith." Oh, wow. I was definitely getting out of the territory of King David and Ruth and Solomon and wouldn't have stories to tell so much as, well, theology! Much of which is at the heart of the Reformation!

It stressed me out a bit. Especially since I was feeling so distracted by all this produce. But after spending a few hours Saturday with the texts and Raymond Brown's An Introduction to the New Testament, writing an introduction to the Letters portion and getting my pages of files in order, I feel much better. In fact, as I should have known it would, it falls into place quite nicely. And the illuminations in "Letters," namely "Fulfillment of Creation," "At the Last Trumpet"  and the "Harrowing of Hell," well, I can see how these lead up to Revelation. So bring on the eschaton, I'm ready!!

It also freed me up to really focus on cleaning up the garden and working with produce if that's what I wanted to do. Today I dried peppers and with the last big bucket of tomatoes, I made "the gravy," putting them through my food mill and then boiling down the sauce and canning four pints. The kitchen smells fantastic! I've put aside some fresh and some canned produce to take with me to Chicago (squeezing in a visit before the new job starts on the 12th). Also made a great pizza last night with all sorts of veggies piled onto it. Saturday I made a giant Greek pasta salad, and there were enough ingredients to make a simpler version again yesterday. It does feel like the frenzy has past and now, like those clouds, I can float along a little while and settle into life.



zucchini, swiss chard, tomato, onion, feta, garlic, peppers



And for a few weeks, I'll be thinking mostly about the apostles Paul and John and the fulfillment of the vision of God's kingdom. I'll let you know how it goes!