First Baptist Church of Herndon

During the early months of our pandemic I threw myself into my knitting. It’s my pastime of choice and usually very soothing. Unfortunately, my anxieties, my posture, and the intensity of my efforts left me in pain and stressed. I had always worked to avoid knitting mistakes as though my life depended on it. Then I read a book about the ergonomics of knitting which said one of the first things a knitter should learn is how to fix mistakes.

Back in August I wrote a parable “The Feeder”. This is not a parable, but somewhat of a sequel. The other day, a bright sunny and somewhat cool day, I noticed there was a lot of activity at my bird feeder. One might have called it a feeding frenzy. It was fun to watch. That evening when I went out to retrieve the feeder for the night, I was shocked to see it nearly empty.

For as long as I can remember my vision of a garden party involved a lot of white linens or furniture, flowers, fancy food, and maybe the game of croquet. I guess you could say my vision came from literary sources. Even when my family would grill our food, the party most often moved inside. The fact that I am a mosquito magnet may have something to do with my lack of enthusiasm for lingering while eating in the great outdoors. Did I mention I own a lot of bug repellant?