Fall

Fall is kissing her New England growing things already, and I am paying the strictest attention. Most of the time fall seems to grow from the inside out on the leaves. It starts with a yellowish orangey spot on the inside of the leaf, and then grows until it takes over completely, like a stone causing a ripple in the water, or like a crater. Or like those purple ring-rocks they sell in gas stations sometimes as crystals. The sunflowers in the garden are turning their mammoth heads down to the grown and letting their petals sag. I tried to turn one back up to the sky to get a bit of warmth, but found myself disturbing the resting place of a golf-ball sized fuzzy bee, and decided to just let the bee be. The raspberry plants are still giving us hundreds of fresh raspberries every week, so we have fresh jam in the mornings. Sometimes the wind will pull a leaf to the ground prematurely, when it is still green, and I mourn the early death of these leaves, still in the Summer of their lives. I try not to get angry unless it is a squirrels fault. Then I don’t try too hard.

Pictures taken by my roommate, Mary

I, of course, am not playing it tough at all, and feel no need to, having been born and raised in glittery sunny Texas, and I am already (though quite happily) freezing to death. I live in a mansion (literally, with three full kitchens and apartments, three sleeping rooms for guests (with about 10 beds each), one butlers kitchen, three massive dining rooms, a library bigger than my apartment, and a lovely patio with a ceiling overlooking the lily pond). The mansion is a hundred and fifty years old, and heated with wood burning stoves. They do not turn on the stoves until mid to late October. One of the reasons I don’t write much is because it hurts my fingers to not be under a blanket or around a hot mug. But I am not complaining, and take walks every day. Gorgeous, sunny, and freezing.

My sister asked me on the phone last week, So what exactly are you doing? And I laughed and thought I might could explain it better. I am working at L’Abri, which is a study center for people asking any kind of honest questions. People can come and stay for twenty-five dollars a night, and while they are here they study, have long slow meals, serve each other by working in and around the property, (doing everything from laundry to mowing to gardening to painting), and just live in community. It was started by Francis and Edith Shaeffer in the fifties, and exists to welcome anybody and everybody who might be honestly pursuing answers. The people who work at L’Abri are orthodox Christians from all different backgrounds and denominations. I copied this from the L’Abri website for anyone who might be interested—

There have been perhaps four main emphases in the teaching of L'Abri.


First, that Christianity is objectively true and that the Bible is God's written word to mankind. This means that biblical Christianity can be rationally defended and honest questions are welcome.


Second, because Christianity is true it speaks to all of life and not to some narrowly religious sphere and much of the material produced by L'Abri has been aimed at helping develop a Christian perspective on the arts, politics and the social sciences etc.

Third, in the area of our relationship with God, true spirituality is seen in lives which by grace are free to be fully human rather than in trying to live on some higher spiritual plane or in some grey negative way.

Fourth, the reality of the fall is taken seriously. Until Christ returns we and the world we live in will be affected by the disfigurement of sin. Although the place of the mind is emphasized, L'Abri is not a place for "intellectuals only".

But what am I doing here? I came last term as a student to work through some things after Seminary, and now I am working on the hospitality side of things, helping to welcome people and make them feel at home here as they study. I love it. I spend most of my time cooking and cleaning and gardening, and then in my free time reading and having discussions with anybody and everybody. We also occasionally go to Irish Pubs, watch movies, and play games. As you can imagine, this place attracts everybody from over-educated suburban white kids (me) to modern day hippies to doctors to business people to immigrants to professors. At meals we talk about what we are learning and studying, and people ask about everything from whether or not aliens exist to how to be ethical in the arts community, how to steward their gifts, how to forgive people who have hurt them, why God seems silent and far away sometimes, etc. L’Abri believes that the Bible has the final authority when it comes to these questions, but many guests here disagree with that, and they are listened to and safe here. I like that.

I also get to cook and meal plan wonderful meals with fresh healthy food. So far my favorites have been a curry soup with hummus. My least favorite has been a meatloaf that I almost chucked rather than giving it to anyone, and lasagna rolls over which I almost had a panic attack trying to put together in time. By the time I got to that meal, I was too wiped to participate in any conversation, and just looked around tiredly, hoping people were enjoying their food.

Well, my fingers are too frozen to write anymore. Be blessed today! Find something very very small to be thankful for, and point out something wonderful in someone near you.