an aesthetic autumnal atmosphere

I’ve been doing some wandering around my college town lately. It looks, and smells, like fall. The air is crisp, the sky is bright, and as I walk along the neighborhood streets listening to The Hobbit or singing hymns with friends, I take courage.

The world is so full of a number of things / I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.

Since I’ve been reading Tolkien, all the pictures in this post are Tolkienish. I can’t wait to finally reread LOTR for the first time in five years : )

images in this post from Pinterest; no copyright infringement intended

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[ part of The Robe follows… some spoilers, but I think it’s worth reading anyway ]

Diana smiled into Marcellus’ eyes, and faced the Emperor. “Your Majesty,” she said, calmly, “I, too, am a Christian. [He] is my husband. May I go with him?”

“The daughter of Gallus is brave,” Caligula said, patronizingly. “But we have no charge against her. You love your husband — but your love will do him no good — when he is dead.”

“It will, sire, if I go with him, for then will will never part. And we will live together — always — in a Kingdom of love — and peace.”

“So — you, too, believe in this nonsense about a Kingdom. Well — you may stand aside. You are not being tried.”

“If it please your Majesty,” said Diana, boldly, “may I then provide evidence to warrant a conviction? I have no wish to live another hour in an Empire so far along on the road to ruin that it would consent to be governed by one who has no interest in the welfare of his people. I think I speak the thoughts of everyone present, sire. These wise men all know that the Empire is headed for destruction — and they know why! As for me — I have another King — and I desire to go with my husband — into that Kingdom!”

The Robe, Lloyd C. Douglas

[ I’ve been recently thinking about how wonderful this book is; you should all read it ]

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I’ve seen a lot of people doing lists of books to read in the fall lately. I thought I’d contribute.

• The Scorpio Races
• The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
• Anne of Windy Poplars
• The Perilous Gard
• The Night Gardener
• Piranesi
• Four Quartets
• An Enchantment of Ravens
• A Time to Die
• Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
• Gilead
• The Wind in the Willows

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And here’s some fall-ish music for your edification:

• Tolkien soundtrack
• Fall: War (The Arcadian Wild)
• Die Forelle
• Philosophers, Poets, and Kings (Kate Rusby)
• Hard Times Come Again No More (The Longest Johns)
• The Parting Glass
• Old Churchyard (The Wailin’ Jennys)
• I Sit Beside the Fire and Think (Clamavi De Profundis)
• Puddleglum’s Anthem (Sarah Sparks)
• Sanctuary (Nashville cast)
• The Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack
• Loch Lomond (The Hound + the Fox)
• Day by Day (Andrew Peterson)
• The Wrote and the Writ (Johnny Flynn)
• Nobody Knows (The Lumineers)
• 1917 soundtrack
• Dream War (Ella Mine)
• Wolves of the Revolution (The Arcadian Wild)
• The Ballad of Jody Baxter (Andrew Peterson)

And what was good, good, good / Is gone, gone, gone / And I’m a little boy who’s lost out in the woods / Always looking for the fawn

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ring

I hear you in the silence
Fall leaves mute beneath my feet
Mist dusting my breath, my sight
And in this
I see your fingerprints
Your echoes fill the void

The atmosphere waits in anticipation —
Just one more while
Just a bit, darling
Hold on —

This small of fall is a whisper,
A glimmer,
A glimpse of your grandeur.

The fall leaves crackle, crisp beneath me
I remember where I am
And I walk on.

But I can’t forget
Your voice ringing around me, inside my soul
And how in just a while
The spheres will sing
Again.

I hear you in the silence

[ Inktober 2019 / Cathedral ]

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Until we meet again,

Lord, save us by Your Grace / That we, like saints before us / May see You face to face.

~ Maya

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