Rob took me to Love Street yesterday and took this photo. It is an indoor/outdoor gift store and to my dismay, it is closing. It consists of 3 different stores and they are in 3 adjacent houses on Love Street, hence the name.

Rob says he guesses that someone will buy the property and raze the houses to build something else. That is the nature of this world. I did some Christmas shopping there and then we came home.

I slept well last night, having coughed less. Rob is doing Thanksgiving dinner and I am just mixing up the green bean casserole.

Life has many twists and turns and most of them are navigable. Even if you mess up, you can start over again. My suffering made me a writer and I am grateful for that, if not for the suffering. But then as some wag said, “All of life is suffering.” I agree with that.

My suffering has forged me in the fires of persistence, but it has also lessened my interest in human social activities. I much prefer the solitude and stillness of the soul at rest.

How does the soul find rest? Perhaps it is only by surrendering to what you truly and deeply want and what you are truly and deeply good at. For me, this is writing about suffering. Those still under the spell of this world will have no interest in what I have to say. But those of you who suffer may read what I write with interest.

I have learned that awakening must be a priority for me. Nothing else satisfies this obsession.

The fruits of my studies are ripening and some are still green. Others have fallen to the ground. I try to be honest about all of these stages and no one is interested unless they know how unawakened they are. This does not mean you are a failure; it just means that you are ripening. Good thing we are not avocados.

Vicki Woodyard