WELCOME to our monthly collection. This space is our online equivalent of a commonplace book. Here is where we offer links and ideas for you to explore, and things we might want to revisit or remember. Brew yourself a cup of tea and savor a quiet moment while you read. Be inspired to live with equal parts industry and creativity.

The topic of the last few articles here on So She Reads has brought these little oddments of hospitality into my life.

The above paragraphs are written by Henri Nouwen

Read this excellent article about hospitality on Road Map to Morning. I love the quote the author used about a ‘holy inconvenience.’

“In Spanish, attention is something you “lend”, because you kind of want it back. In French you “make” it, because it’s not there if you don’t. In English you “pay” it, because it’s valuable. And in German you “gift” it, because it really is a present.

thelingwist

A Word for Autumn and an invitation to enjoy your celery by A. A. Milne. Don’t misss this, it’s great! Milne is the author of Winnie the Pooh but this is not about him.

A Symbol of Hospitality

Pineapples were hung at entrances to Caribbean villages. When the trade ships’ captians came to trade with the natives, the warm welcome and the image of the pineapple merged.

Back in the new colonies on the American coast, the pineapple became a symbol of hospitality. Newly returned sea captains put a pineapple on the fence post or step when they returned home to tell people they had a safe journey. It was an invitation to the townspeople to stop in for refreshments and to hear tales of time at sea.

Pineapple, the king of fruit, is still used today to crown large displays of food. You can find tablecloths, napkins, doormats and even bedposts adorned with pineapple motifs.

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French Onion Beef Sliders are something I served a couple times this month and they were met with enthusiasm. Please excuse the language in the post preceeding the recipe or better yet, just click on jump to recipe!

(picture above from Wikipedia)

Grace for Meals

The Christian Hymnal has five little songs as grace for meals. Three of them I have sung often and one I have never heard anyone sing. I’m curious if any of my readers know Christian Hymnal #649. I would love to hear it.

Sarah Josepha Hale, pictured above, wrote Our Father in Heaven, the song we sing often at mealtime. She was born in 1788 in New Hampshire, and was taught more schooling than the average girl in her day. She married a lawyer, David Hale, who died after nine years of marriage, leaving Mrs. Hale with five children to support. She turned to writing as a form of income. During this time she wrote Mary Had a Little Lamb, her most recognized poem.

In 1827 she wrote a novel Northwood: Life North and South, becoming the first novelist to write about slavery as well as the first American woman novelist.

She became editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book in 1837, a widely circulated magazine. Her columns covered everything women of her day were interested in, from women’s education, to child rearing, to slavery. She used that platform to raise money to preserve George Washington’s home and the Bunker Hill Monument. She did not support the women’s suffrage movement because she believed participation in politics would limit influence at home.

Through Mrs. Hale’s writings, mainly letters to the president and politicians, she convinced them of the need for a national Thanksgiving holiday. In 1863, during the civil war, President Lincoln signed “A National Day of Thanksgiving and Praise.”

She died in 1877 at the age of 92.

The story of Grace by Eric Enstrom I looked for a picture that I’m sure you all have seen, but everything I found was copyrighted, so click the link to see it and read the story of how it came to be.

Enjoy the fall color today! –Liz