My daughter brought in her treasures from her creme stand today, preparing for winter. The creme stand, passed down from her older sister, is an open-sided playhouse complete with salvaged gems:  a dented wok, a rusting percolator found in a farm dump, a broken food mill, and bottles and jars and containers. Back in the summers when I sold maple syrup, I bought hundreds of dollars worth of bottles every year, and I often acquired special bottles at her request. Bottles in the shape of a smiling sun, a crescent moon, a sugarhouse, a miniature heart. Whatever hasn’t broken has been bequeathed to the second daughter. Following her older sister’s lead, these bottles are filled with colored water, and hence the need to gather before the water freezes in the coming cold.

Likewise, today, I’m gathering tomatoes, pulling spent plants, putting to end-of-season rights what I can. So today, this Sunday at home, my daughter put her things in order, too.

We must bring about a revolution in our way of living our everyday lives, because our happiness, our lives, are within ourselves.

––Thich Nhat Hanh

Photo by Molly S.