My gosh.  I spent the first two hours of my day stomping, squelching and gliding through the woods around the cabin.  There was the spectre of a fog bank sitting low in the East end of this hanging valley, a phenomenon that only I am privy to, here at the end of the road.  Mornings like these are so sacred and pure.  I feel the pointer finger of God smoothing the crystal of my heart, gliding around the curving edges, making my spirit rise up from a glowing hum to full song.  I am strummed by the Creator, blown into like a flute, resonating and rumbling like a bassoon!  Oh!  The mornings here are perched so solidly on the rotting foundation of autumn, it’s exquisite.  The details.  The details are magnificent and minute.  They fling themselves at me, one by one, a flickering and prickly barrage of beauty.  I catch the beauty as I can.  Every moment the sun rises higher and the details change in the hands of the light.  I’m going to die too fast, burn out, I’m living too much all at once.  I’m living with my eyes wide open and my heart so awfully full that I think I suffer miniature soul implosions multiple times a day.  Look at this world!  Look at this world we live in!  Open your eyes!  Hold out your hands.  It’s all a gift.

I love it so dearly, so zealously, so creatively.

I love it.

This is going to be an incredible week.  I can feel it in my bones, the energy building and unfolding, like there are crystals sprouting in the blunt corners of my joints, diamonds bursting from the striations and bends of my muscles and sinew.  I’m a geode.  I’m going to look past the grit of my skin, crack myself open and spill a little bright shining, jagged, unrefined beauty into the eyes of every beholder.

:::POST SCRIPTUS:::

Gird your loins, tomato lovers, and prepare to wield your soup spoons!  I’ve been meaning to share this soup recipe with you for the better part of a month.  I am addicted to it and I’ve been making a couple batches a week, while the fresh tomatoes from the base garden are peaking.

Fresh Tomato Soup

1/4 cup olive oil (or whatever oil you wish)

2 large onions sliced or chopped

2 medium carrots chopped

2 celery stalks chopped

7 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp orange zest (I also squeeze the zested orange juice into the soup)

8 cups chopped tomatoes

1 cup chicken or vegetable broth

2 bay leaves

2-3 tbsp fresh thyme

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

ground pepper to taste

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Heat oil in sauce pan, add onions, carrots, celery garlic and orange zest — cook until veggies are softened.  Add the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.  Remove bay leaves, allow soup to cool and then transfer it into a blender.  I like to blend it until it’s slightly chunky.

Serve it up!  We like it with grilled cheese sandwiches, naturally, on home baked bread.  So hot, hearty and delicious!  Perfect warm-you-up-from-the-inside food for autumn.