It is now mid September in Brooklyn. The weather lately has begun to feel like fall. I am no longer able to go out early in the mornings with just a t-shirt. The boardwalk is preparing for a quiet winter with many of the concessions and rides no longer open during the week. When I walk around our neighborhood I am amazed at how many gardens were planted with Tomatoes and Peppers and Squash. There are many Asian people here and they love Squash plants, big giant ones. There is however an amazing garden just two blocks from my house. The gardner is a man in his 70's who relentlessly cared for his small plot of land all summer. Here he grows the ingredients he needs for his fresh tomatoe sauce. The amazing thing is how many tomatoes he was able to grow on such a small plot of land. They were so well organized and the plum tomatoes were huge. Next to the tomatoes were rows of peppers and next to that was a huge plot of basil. Each day when I walked by I wanted to steal just one tomatoe from his vines. As you can see they are very inviting.

Beyond Mr Cuzamano's garden there were other gardens as well. On older Italian had the most beautiful plum tree with an amazing amount of fruit hanging from it.

One of the greatest joys of all were the abundance of flowers, especially roses. It seems that everyones yard has some flowers. On Asian woman has the most amazing flower garden and in the middle of it are Queen Ann Roses. All this week the one bush was producing the most beautiful roses. When I pass by I always sneak a smell of the roses. For the very second my nose touches the rose I feel like I am in Heaven, but the second it leaves the rose, the smell can barely be remembered. To pass her house is always my most enjoyable moment of the day.

Recently I was riding my bicycle on the walkway next to the hudson river. I came upon a very strange sight. There was a Haitian women walking backwards with a bottle of water on her head. As you can see by the picture I am telling the truth about this one.

Some time ago there was a Russian woman on the boardwalk walking backward. And since then occasionally I see people walking backwards as they exercise. I am not sure why they do this. But it seems that on the one hand they are very involved with their past and like to focus on the past to somehow assure themselves of a future.

This woman pictured actually peaked into the future a lot just to make sure she was headed in the right direction. On the boardwalk it is easier to keep on the right direction because their are parallel boards the measure your progress by. The straight and narrow seems easier to figure when you have something or someone to guide you.

This imagery raises a lot of questions about life. How should we face life. Should we look back and count our blessings or should we look to the future and calculate all we do by what we preceive might happen in the future. Faith in Christ involves all of the above. It involves preparing for a harvest and being wise and yet trusting Christ for our daily needs. Looking back helps us remember that His promises never will fail us.

Many blessings, Barre