Autumn is, without question, my most favorite season. Its blazing beauty. The crisp clean
air. Gathering a blanket under your chin at night. The crunch of leaves. The
smell of leather and smoke. But most of all, I love the nostalgia of this time
of year. Autumn is a season bloated with bittersweet memories. A time of year
which demands remembrance.
As I age, I
remain stunned by Time’s sure sprint to the finish line. I cannot get over how
the hands of the clock gain such speed. Autumn is the time when I am most aware
of Life’s accelerating pace. I cling to these vibrant days like the leaves on
the trees, knowing full well that one gust of coarse wind will rip me loose
from my own moorings. These are the days
of harvest, and heading home to the hearth to rest. These are the days which
foreshadow a final homecoming.
Life has
many lessons to teach. Most are done so seasonally. Each time of year has a
subject to tutor us in. These months offer up a course on letting go. We cannot
hang on. Clinging is futile. We must let go. We must wave the white flag, and
surrender to the coming of Winter. We seek to stretch out these Fall days. We
yearn for just a couple more days of Indian summer.
Still, in
this time of year, we are being drilled on the topic of endings. Learning to
relinquish. To say our goodbyes. To not avoid farewell. To honestly face that
many of our muscles now sag; most of our
youthful dreams have faded ; relationships – too many to count or even recall
-- have vanished, and our longings grown sharply focused – minimal.
Autumn
prioritizes. Offers praise to what has been. Offers hope of what we still might
receive or pull off. Grants faith to those of us wise enough to ready ourselves
for the blizzard ahead. Autumn is a time when stories are told before roaring
fires. When the word of God is draped about the earth in the colors of fire.
When God’s own story begins to wind down for us, and we begin to hear the
echoed words, “the end”, in our ears.
Autumn. This
wild, strange, eerie, magnificent season. A sacred time. A time swarming with holiness.
An eternal time. A time which announces the sad departure of so many dawns and an
equal number of dusks. A time which heralds that Life will indeed go on and on
and on…dust to dust…ashes to ashes…in the sure and certain hope of…
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment