Dear Reader:

After reading about the term “Novemberish” in yesterday’s blog Anne sent me this picture that her sister, Nancy, had emailed earlier…a photo of an exquisite November Maine morning. (No “Novemberish” gloom and doom up there either.)

Hi Becky,

I loved your blog today.  I had just been marveling at the photo Nancy stopped to take this morning on her lane as she was headed to Boston. 

Her surgery is tomorrow (prayers, please), and it’s as if she wanted to take a little of this gloriousness along. Our take on Novemberish-ness is all about the love of our Creator, isn’t it!

The impending surgery, today for Nancy, following her chemo treatments, could possibly be a big benchmark ending to her breast cancer treatments if the surgeons can successfully remove the last “annoying” nodules.

Please say a prayer that this is the case and November will always be remembered as a time of serenity and change…a second shot for Nancy at this beautiful thing we call life.

On Nancy’s trip to Boston, I am sure she came across many bends in the road and the metaphor is quite evident. Throughout our lives we will continually run into another bend in the road. What is behind that bend is a mystery to us. It could be something amazing or something quite challenging…we won’t know until we complete the turn.

A year ago…Nancy would not have been able to see the breast cancer that lay in wait around the next bend in the road….and now…Nancy is getting closer and closer to seeing her body healed from this intrusive disease.

In Charles Kuralt’s popular series “On the Road ” he talked a lot about the next bend in the road that would lead him to another powerful, human interest story he never foresaw coming.

In  the 1980’s New York Times  did an article on Kuralt….the following paragraph described his new show:

The shows will open and close with a little ditty sung by a man with a twang in his voice and set to banjo music. Mr. Kuralt wrote the lyrics: ”All these years, I’ve been a-wandering. Just when I think I’m near the end, I always see the road a-bending. I wonder what’s around the bend.”

What’s around the bend tonight is typical Kuraltia: a small factory in Blenheim, S.C., where antiquated machinery prone to break- downs bottles ginger ale that burns Mr. Kuralt’s throat and makes his eyes water.

*I bird walk here somewhat…but a few years ago I was working with a school that was struggling meeting the state standards in Bennettsville, South Carolina. Everyone I met, while I was there, told me I had to have a bottle of Blenheim ginger ale before I left.

(Obviously it is an old joke…a teacher brought one bottle the last day I was there eating lunch in the cafeteria with them….the snickering should have given it away….but I took one swallow and sprayed the whole table. My entire insides were on fire and my eyes started rolling around in different directions. I can sympathize with Kuralt.)

Aren’t we so glad that we can’t see what’s around the next bend in the road….one of the constant mysteries of life…only God knows and I am more than satisfied to leave the mystery to Him. As long as I know He is with me, no matter what appears on the other side of the curve, I am fine.

I figure one day I will go around the bend and there the road will end- no more bends…but until that day I am still curious and excited at the possibilities awaiting each turn.

So until tomorrow…Let us never lose the joy of anticipation and strength of courage to deal with each of our own personal bends in the road….knowing God is ahead of us …on the other side of the curve waiting.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* Here is a wonderful gentleman (who became known as “The Waving Man of Berkeley”) who Charles Kuralt discovered one day around a bend in the road. You will love it.

Joseph Charles – Waving Man of Berkeley – YouTube

This latest ’bout’ of rain is magically taking the green leaves of the poinsettias, planted by the bottle tree, into the artistic care of Mother Nature…who has brought out her palette…dipping her paint brush into the red and purples to color the poinsettia leaves….I can hardly wait for all of them to turn.