I've been absent a lot over the summer, and I'd like to say thank you to my faithful blog readers who have continued to drop by, not to mention that you continued to pray for me. Your prayers made a difference.
Between the broken ankle in June and losing Mom in July, I barely remember we had a summer. I've spent more than a few days over the past 60+ crying an ocean of tears. But as is written in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, "We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed." And although I grieve over my loss and will continue to feel the absence of my precious mother, I have this promise to sustain me: "And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died." (1 Thessalonians 4:13–14) Ah, yes. I do not grieve as those who have no hope. Praise Jesus!
And now autumn is nearly upon us, and I am ready for a new season. I'm ready for the crisp air in the morning and for that particular smell on a September breeze. One that speaks of harvest and apple cider with cinnamon and cloves and light jackets needed for an early evening stroll.
Since this post happens to fall on Labor Day (celebrated on the first Monday in September), I thought I would share a little bit of its history with you (thanks to Wikipedia):
"The first Labor Day in the United States was celebrated on September 5, 1882 in New York City (pictured at right). In the aftermath of the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the 1894 Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland put reconciliation with Labor as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the strike. Cleveland was also concerned that aligning an American labor holiday with existing international May Day celebrations would stir up negative emotions linked to the Haymarket Affair. By the 20th century, all 50 U.S. states had made Labor Day a state holiday."
History, along with English, was my favorite subject while I was in school. It would be so easy for me to spend all of my time just researching and never write a word of the book I'm researching for. I mean, there's always some unexpected bit of information one stumbles upon that tempts a writer to go off on some rabbit trail that is oh-so-fascinating but oh-so-useless for the work-in-progress. Of course, there are always those rare times when that unexpected bit of information turns out to be the gem the writer needed all along.
Until I looked it up for this blog, I didn't have a clue what event marked the creation of Labor Day, but now the wheels are turning in my head. Is it possible I could put it to use in my series that is set in the late 1800s? Hmmm…
~robin
