11.07.2025 | Ordinary Friday

Grace from the ground—carrots pulled just before the frost.

​The First Frost: A Time to Harvest and Reflect
“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”
—Mary Oliver
 
The first hard frost of the season is on the horizon, and we’re working quickly to gather the last of the tender vegetables before its arrival. The carrots were especially abundant this year, what a grace to witness that vibrant orange rising from the rich, dark soil. Carrot soup is surely on the menu soon, a warm tribute to the season’s generosity.
 
Frost signals the end of the growing season. Its frozen touch transforms everything it meets. And yet, we know the frost is not just an ending, it’s necessary. It reminds us that even under the harshest conditions, life continues. Nature endures. It adapts. It survives.
 
As we watch and wait, we learn. We learn that when life brings hardship, we too can adapt. We can endure. We can survive. And not just survive… but thrive.
 
This season teaches us that the hardest times often carry seeds of growth and rebirth. Renewal and change may come wrapped in cold and quiet, but they are no less sacred. As the growing season draws to a close, let us take time to rest, reflect, and renew.
 
We can adapt. We can survive. And in time, we will thrive.
 
As the frost settles and the soil rests, may we pay attention to the quiet gifts of the season. May we be astonished by resilience, by grace, by the beauty of endings. And may we tell about it, with warmth, with hope, and with the courage to begin again.
 
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.”
—Ecclesiastes 3:1