Surrender expectations. Ask to be surprised by joy . . .
Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness of it. Touch. Taste. Smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it. Because in the final analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace . . . There is no event so commonplace that God is not present within it, always hidden, always leaving you room to recognize or not to recognize It . . . (Buechner)
AUTUMNGLORY
This is me again, BessieJune Pruitt, with the opening chapter of My Story. That there other part you just read was the Introduction, Miz Suze says. And I decided to start with AutumnGlory’s story, because after Miz Suze, she is my favorite of the girls. I think it’s because she laughs so much, she’s so jolly all the time, and she always has time for me. She’s been here a long time, and I think she’s older than she seems, because I see some henna hair rinse in her room, and the gray roots show sometimes. But you don’t care because she’s so kind. Miz Suze says it’s because she believes in herself, because she’s been through some hard times that have taught her a lot, and she understands that everybody’s going through a hard time.
I asked AutumnGlory if that was her real name, and she laughed and said lord, no, honey, I was given the name of Henrietta Bottomly, now if that ain’t a mouthful that nobody wants to say, what is it. So I think she chose a name that shows how much she loves nature — she’s hardly ever in the Yella Schoolhouse; she’s always outside somewhere.
I think she kinda acts like the other girls’ mama or older sister at least. She reads the cards and the tea-leaves, and kinda gives ’em advice-like. She’s always careful to say, tho’, that the cards and the leaves, they don’t predict the future, they just give possibilties and probabilities of what’s gonna happen up ahead based on your choices and decisions now. She won’t read mine, just says I’m too young, I’ve got too much livin’ to do yet to worry about such things, that I just need to let life happen, and embrace it all, honey.
Can you see why I love AutumnGlory? She don’t talk much about her past, but what she did tell me makes me think she might not’ve had any parents, or leastwise any parents that cared about her. She musta lived on the streets of some big city back east when she was real young after she run away from the orphanage she got stuck in — she said she was set on gettin’ somewhere where they was trees and she could breathe deep, honey. So guess what she did?? — she smuggled away on a train that was comin’ west when she was only eight! She won’t talk much about what happened to her during all that time but I think it musta been pretty bad, ’cause that’s the only time I see AutumnGlory look sad, when she thinks about the past.
But she don’t do that much because she’s always so much enjoyin’ the present. And she tells us to do that, too. Dance and sing and look around, honey — in every tree or apple or flower you see, there is an aha! a’waitin’. Ever-thing, she says, is holy. When ya eat an apple, think of the person who planted the tree. And be grateful, honey.
You can see that AutumnGlory, she’s real religious-like. But not religious like church or the preacher. I don’t know too much about what’s holy and all that but I think AutumnGlory does. I think she knows somethin’ real-like that most other folks don’t know. But bein’ around her, ya kinda feel like you’re closer to that holy.
Mebbe it’s because of all those hard times. I know Miz Suze thinks a lot of her. And even goes to her for advice sometimes. And if you wanna see her, you can usually find her under a tree somewhere. She says when she’s ready to die, she just hopes someone takes her out and plants her under a tree.
Well, that’s AutumnGlory. I hope I done her justice ’cause she’s a mighty fine woman. And most folks in this town, they know that. I never heard a hard thing about her, and for this town, that’s sayin’ a lot. If you wanna meet her, look for her under that tree, and don’t put on airs — she has a way of seein’ thru most things.