AUTUMN BOUNTY

It's been an odd summer. There has been almost no time to devote to the vegetable plot, but we have had a bumper crop and the summer stuff keeps on coming, just as the first of the autumn rasps and the winter savoys and sprouts begin to crop.

It is almost three months since our son came back from Canada with us. Today he moved into his new home and tomorrow starts a new job. We are so grateful for his returning health and strength.

In spite of these reasons for joy, I have a heavy heart this weekend as our government commits to yet another conflict in the Middle East. I don't often stray into politics in this forum, but since the early hours the words of Dr King have been ringing in my ears:

'The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral,
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
Through violence you may murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.
In fact, violence merely increases hate.
So it goes.
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.'