Fall and Winter...again!

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…Ecclesiastes 3:1

Fall is a favorite season of mine, as it is for most people…the sight of colorful vistas. The smell of burning campfires and roasting marshmallows. The sound of dropping acorns. Hayrides. Pumpkin Farms. For me there is just something about the ‘process’ for fall that moves my spirit…picking apples, covering fountains and other plants, taking down the bird bath, and bringing plants inside.

Every year I look forward to the bursts of beautiful color even though I know it will be followed by empty branches, cold weather, and shorter days. And even though I am sad to tell summer weather good-bye, I know it is time to embrace the new seasons in front of me, fall and winter.

I used to think “wouldn’t it be nice if the beautiful colored leaves could stay on the trees?" Then I realized that if they did stay on the trees, there would be no room for the new green leaves in the Spring. Much of life is like that too. I think of all the people and things in my life that have “fallen” and how I wish they could have stayed. I realize that what is true for the fallen leaves is also true for the fallen people and things in my life.

But life moves forward…always making room for the new. Could it be that Spirit knows our longing to resist change and keep things just the same? Could it also be that Spirit knows how very much we will also appreciate the new growth and fresh opportunities?

This fall season I look once again to trimming back in my spiritual life. Cutting out what is dead in my spiritual life so I can rest and regroup in my winter time and prepare for new growth in my springtime.

So as I watch leaves drop one by one I realize Spirit is only making room for the gifts that will prepare us the future. Nature mirrors our own lives with new growth, full bloom, trimming back, and rest. There is much of me that feels I am in fall, and ready to rest a bit in my winter haven so I will be ready for new growth and full bloom once again.

Spring always comes.

I'm holding the high watch!
Rev. Donna