WHEN AUTUMN LEAVES START TO FALL....
When Autumn Leaves Start to Fall
Walking is a form of prayer for me. Each morning I head to a nearby walking route and practice being absolutely present to the world. Here I listen for the wisdom that the seasons offer my life. Each of the seasons offers a great deal of wisdom for the spiritual journey. Autumn is a season of transition when the leaves start to fall from their trees, reminding us that our lives are constantly in flux. Of course change is always with us, but autumn brings us to a deeper awareness that we live in a continual cycle of dying and rising. As Albert Camus says "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” God is quite an artist this time of year. God hues hints of hope and a purpose to the changes we often struggle with on our path. I used to fight autumn, dreading the coming winter. Now in the second half of my life, I am learning to embrace its beauty as part of the transforming process and rhythm of life. Autumn calls us to remember our own fragility and cherish this beauty. Living a life of detachment, letting things go when their season is over, brings life! To let things go when their time is up is not failure, it is not to not appreciate what has been, it is simply to acknowledge that seasons change and a new one is about to begin although we will always miss our loved ones more, especially those that have passed when those Autumn leaves start to fall. I recently spent my staycation walking around parts of the west where finally the season of autumn has shown itself in full bloom and it gave me a sweet taste of the colours of autumn before the grey days of winter arrive. Walking as I said is a form of prayer for me and In the midst of my prayer during the season of Autumn, I hold the great tension between the beauty of our earth with the delight that it offers and the great destruction humankind has inflicted upon her. It reminded me of the moving poem by Irish poet, Seamus Heaney which captures the beauty and the terror we hold..."Wind shakes the big poplar, quicksilvering, The whole tree in a single sweep. What bright scale fell and left this needle quivering? What loaded balances have come to grief?"
Seize your Autumn
But amid all these Autumn changes a thought that came to me during my prayer walk recently is that I love and adore the season of autumn. Autumn for me is the season of the harvest, when we reap what we planted in the spring and summer just gone before us. It is the time to gather nature’s bounty, the fruits and vegetables, the grains and nuts. We eat them with gratitude; and we can preserve them for the coming cold winter months. The colours change brilliantly all around us, and the sky and the sea are at their bluest against the awesome autumnal colours especially in the leaves. The air is cooler and drier; and there seems to be more clarity of vision, both externally and internally as well as spiritually. To me, autumn has always felt as if a new year is beginning: the glorious somewhat restful summer months come to an end, and we return to our more rigorous rituals and routines at school, at play or at work. This can be the perfect time to make resolutions for the coming last quarter of the year. We remember the past few months and look critically at our lives: at the good things we choose to nourish and attend to, and at the negative or destructive habits and behaviours we resolve to eliminate. It is the opportune time to re-evaluate our lives, to pray and reflect more and create a strategy for moving forward. Autumn reminds us that flexibility and adaptability are crucial for staying healthy and balanced during the winter months ahead. During this time we will want to prepare for the challenges of winter by completing unfinished projects, clearing away clutter and debris, setting extra food and fuel like turf aside, and making sure that we are physically, emotionally and spiritually prepared for the cold, dark and wintry months to come.
It amazes me how the evening’s start to shorten to their shortest and how the coldness comes back into the air. For me, autumn is the symbolic season that reminds one to grab hold of all that life has to offer. Autumn is the fulfillment of a hopeful spring and glorious summer. To make the most of autumn is, for me, to make the most of all that is good in life. Gone are thoughts of winter despair or a chilling and wet spring or an uneventful summer. Everything around us now in this autumn season is alive and vibrant and is at the end of full maturity. If I seize an autumn day, I believe I seize life itself and find in it all that gives pleasure and meaning. But nothing is as beautiful as all the trees, flowers, shrubs and bushes that are in full colour. It is truly a beautiful, magical and wonderful time of our year. It makes me think about the many blessings that autumn gives to us, such as the coolness and freshness in the air, the soft warm sun on our skin, wonderful warm to cool breezes, singing of the birds, animals of all kinds fully emerged and matured, fresh and sea waters flowing, trees, plants and flowers fully blossomed in an array of numerous colours. We all need to be positive and embrace abundance, love, care and joy into our lives, treasuring each moment as it comes. We get so wrapped up at times, well I know I do, with thinking about the past, a lot of the time trying to control the future and forgetting to enjoy and be at peace in the present moment of now. In this world there is strife. There is hardship, and there is suffering. There is inequality. There is injustice. There is also abundant beauty amidst it all. And within that beauty there are reminders tucked away everywhere, encouraging us to persist, to strive, and to bring our dreams for a better world to life. We have only to open our hearts and look, and we will see them. Please this Autumn before the winter is upon us, try to embrace the positive in your life as it’s meant to be. We all need to start focusing on positive thoughts and creative ideas that make us happy and content. Less negative thinking, it only brings down our spirits and serves no purpose. Let’s all try this autumn and always to make the most of all that is good in our lives.
Autumn can Be!
Autumn can be lending a hand, lifting a heavy load. Autumn can be a smile on a cloudy day. Autumn can be a crust of bread to the poor, giving shelter from the storm. Autumn can be a thought, a poem, a blessing, a prayer. Autumn can be showing support, care and enthusiasm. Autumn can be listening quietly while someone else has something important they’d like you to hear. Autumn can be a friendly hug, or a warm embrace. Autumn can be expressions, penned on a page. Autumn can be the transferring of a certain glance. Autumn can be offering your time. Autumn can be sitting silently beside someone to watch the sun slide behind a silver sea. Autumn can be wiping a tear. Autumn can be chasing the moon at night. Autumn can be a whisper, a word, a soft touch at the right moment. Autumn can be riding a ferris wheel together without ever leaving the ground. Autumn can be a telephone call or a letter, closing the miles. Autumn can be a kiss on a fevered brow. Autumn can be the gift of a flower. Autumn can be teaching with kindness and love. Autumn can be sharing the depth of a powerful silence. Autumn can be wishing you were somewhere when you must be someplace else. Autumn can be a time of healing and a time of forgiving. Autumn can be taking someone’s place when they must be somewhere else. Autumn can be walking, running or driving through the blazing brilliance of autumn. Autumn can be just holding hands or looking into one another's eyes. Autumn can be waiting out the tough times. Autumn can be touching God through the heart and soul, and letting His will be done.
An Autumn Prayer
Autumn brings with it changes in weather, sending many of us indoors more regularly. We get to experience bright, sunny days that are often quickly followed by torrential rains and cooler temperatures. As we move to the interiors of homes and workplaces for refuge it’s also a good time to consider the interior of our hearts and minds. God is present with us at all times, of course, but autumn invites a fresh look inside to see where God stirs. As the leaves fall from the trees, we are prompted to watch their slow descent to the ground, seeing how at times, a burst of strong wind can blow off half the leaves from a tree in an instant. How well do we watch the movements of our spiritual lives and how often do we reflect on what the slow breezes or strong gusts of wind signal? Here is a beautiful Prayer for Autumn Days I love to pray by Sr. Joyce Rupp, OSM "God of the seasons, there is a time for everything; there is a time for dying and a time for rising. We need courage to enter into the transformation process. God of autumn, the trees are saying goodbye to their green, letting go of what has been. We, too, have our moments of surrender, with all their insecurity and risk. Help us to let go when we need to do so. God of fallen leaves lying in colored patterns on the ground, our lives have their own patterns. As we see the patterns of our own growth, may we learn from them. God of misty days and harvest moon nights, there is always the dimension of mystery and wonder in our lives. We always need to recognize your power-filled presence. May we gain strength from this. God of harvest wagons and fields of ripened grain, many gifts of growth lie within the season of our surrender. We must wait for harvest in faith and hope. Grant us patience when we do not see the blessings. God of geese going south for another season, your wisdom enables us to know what needs to be left behind and what needs to be carried into the future. We yearn for insight and vision. God of flowers touched with frost and windows wearing white designs, may your love keep our hearts from growing cold in the empty seasons. God of life, you believe in us, you enrich us, you entrust us with the freedom to choose life. For all this, we are grateful. Amen"
As a final thought, I pray that as the signs of autumn begin to show themselves all around us, that you will remember that each new day is like a cleared field after harvesting. Your thoughts, attitudes, and actions are the fruit and crops of what you planted. This autumn choose only the fruits and crops that produced a bountiful harvest of love, joy, health, kindness, care, prosperity, mercy, compassion and peace and let that which held you back drift away. And may you give thanksgiving not only for the autumn time around you, but also for the autumn time within you. This autumn season try to dislodge hate and replace it with love. Dislodge pride and replace it with humility. Dislodge anger and replace it with self control. Dislodge unbelief and replace it with faith. Dislodge revenge, and replace it with forgiveness. Dislodge complaining and replace it with praise. Dislodge evil and unkind thoughts and replace them with pure and kind thoughts. Dislodge gossip and replace it with encouragement. Dislodge laziness and replace it with caring. Happy Autumn everyone! I wish each of you as you read this thought, in this moment and on this day, much peace and joy. Feel this autumn, own it, squeeze the autumn fruit out of it. You have arrived at your destination; this is the present autumn of your life. The autumn of life is a strange mixture of nostalgia, blessings, and potential. It yields the harvest of seeds we’ve sown throughout life and braces us for colder days to come. When life’s autumn arrives, we look back and better understand the way God led us; but we still have work to do—the best and fullest. It’s a good transition time. Let me finish with a Prayer I wrote about Autumn Harvest Time. "In the setting of the Autumn sun, In the shortening of days, In the cooling of the breeze,In the flight of migrating birds, In brightness of the rays of moonlight, In the browning and decay of leaves once green and full of life, In the beauty of morning mists and wintry chills, In the beauty of the fruit that falls, In the coldness of nature's first frost, We see the Creator's Hand. So our God of the harvest, Our Farmer and Harvester supreme, Please place us we pray at the centre of all that is good during this Harvest time. Feed us, nurture us, prune us, strengthen us, harvest us and provide for us, Then look to a different harvest, a fruitfulness of our lives in service to you and others. That our lives might bring glory to you. We bless you, God of Seed and Harvest, And we bless each other, That the beauty of this world, And the great love and care that created it, Might be expressed through our own lives And be a blessing to others, Now and always. Amen. Enjoy a beautiful autumn!!!!