Holiness in our midst – Session 12
SESSION XII: TIME OF DAY
What is your favorite time of day?
Mine is dusk, the few moments before the red sun sinks below the horizon. It is my favorite time to drive through the Iowa countryside, especially in late summer. There is enough light to see details of fields, gardens and barns, but lights are already on in homes. Everything in sight is cast in a warm glow. I have to be careful when I “joy drive” at this time; the deer also share my love of being out and about at sunset. I am sometimes thankful for the slow-moving farm vehicles that give me an excuse to travel more slowly. I can take time to reflect and plan as I travel the rural back roads of my youth.
I call this magical time of day “gleaners light” after the 1857 oil painting The Gleaners by French artist Jean-Francois Millet. Three peasant women are picking up stray grains of wheat after the harvest. The sky in the picture is streaked with yellow, red and orange. I was introduced to this piece of art because a print hung in the dining room of Innie and Guy Handsaker, our landlords on the farm near Nevada where I grew up. They lived next door to our small home, but I spent so many hours exploring their big farmhouse, attic and all, that I thought of it as my second home. I studied The Gleaners as I sat on Innie’s lap while she read little Golden Books to me. I secretly thought that Innie looked like one of the women in the painting. I sometimes remember our hours together when I drive by our ?farmstead: changed, modernized, but still standing at dusk.
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STORY CIRCLE QUESTION:
What is your favorite time of day? Why?
FOR PERSONAL/JOURNAL REFLECTION:
- Read the above reflection aloud.
- Write a journal reflection: Explore a memory linked to a time of day? Where were you? Who was with you?
FOR GROUP STUDY:
- Read aloud Session XII.
- Ask each person to answer the Story Circle Question.