except Chiffarobe

OMG, the coffee is good. A Navy lifeTime of enjoying it hot & black is tempered this morning by my stirring a tablespoon of Manuka honey into it. Supposedly there are medicinal qualities to the Manuka honey, and the AI character on Google okays it for a person of my description, provided I mind my sugar intake.

One eight ounce mug of coffee a day is my portion, in my Ember mug kept perfect sipping temperature hot for about an hour. Makes early predawn dark mornings fun and good.

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A priest friend invited me to contribute a short essay to his Advent project, pick a date, topic, bible verse combination. I waffled between "Journey" and "Wilderness" for an hour or so, then settled on "Journey" and let him know. Now I've been struggling to keep the length of it down before I email him the final write, which maybe I'll do the first week of November. It's for December 5, and I always worry that these things tell more about me than I want people knowing. I'm not especially a heretic, but you and I don't believe anything like the same things religiously. Fortunately, in the Episcopal Church we don't have to check our brains at the church door, we can think for ourselves; plus, and to me it's a major factor, there's that anonymous proverb that I used to read inscribed in the lintel over the library at the Episcopal seminary in Virginia when I studied there in the 1980s - - Seek The Truth, Come Whence It May, Cost What It Will. It was and is one of the most intellectually freeing things I've ever encountered.

Anyway, that, my proverb, is sort of the centerpiece for my Advent essay on the topic "Journey." As a meditation, it's something of a confession without penitence. As we get into Advent 2026, I'll print/publish it here on +Time.

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Sitting here with my legs elevated per doctor's orders for my CHF, limits the blood flow into my legs and makes my feet "go to sleep," which is quite uncomfortable and I have to take them down.

My prop-up arrangement here in the living room is one of our dining room chairs with an extra cushion. It's comfortable and seems perfect until I realize that my feet have gone numb.

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Here's our Collect, the Prayer of the Day, for Sunday, 1 November, which is All Saint's Day.

Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord:

Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Looking at these collects, I'm always fascinated with the opening address, which is a theological assertion, something to believe about God. In this one, the theological assertion is "Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord."

It's a lovely statement. I don't take issue with it. However, having recently watched the 1977 film "Oh, God" I remember George Burns' response when John Denver's character tells God, 'I'm not even religious." George Burns as God responds that He's not religious either. And I wonder what He might say about this theological assertion about what He has done, I'm thinking He might respond to the Christian Church, "I didn't do that, you did that, and you haven't done a very good job of it either."

Anyway, there you go, and it's Friday, October 30. Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November. All the rest have thirty one, except February, which has twenty-eight in line, 'til leap year gives it twenty-nine.

or, as my next door neighbor Bill Guy learned from his mother. Thirty days hath Septober, April, June, and No Wonder. All the rest have peanut butter, except Chiffarobe: it's a tall thing with big drawers.

RSF&PTL

T91