Blog break

You'd think these birds would be hiding out this week, but actually they wander freely on Martha's Vineyard, a protected pest. Aggressive hunters did in the heath hen on the island, but the wild turkeys have persisted.

And so, for a blog break until Monday, December 2.

November has been a season of compound griefs, some of which I've written about here.

The griefs of the nation and of the planet compound the personal.

Cat nursing grinds on, quite possibly on a positive path.

We (and the cat) will be spend a couple of days in Maine with family, taking in both grief and gratitude.

Next Sunday, the Christian season of Advent begins -- a season of shivering terror as the darkness deepens and of clinging to joyful longing for the coming manifestation of God's love, the love which we believe we meet in a weak newborn human at Christmas.

Good travels and travails -- good winter dreams to all. Back soon enough.