How can it be October already? Wasn’t it just June? Time seems to move so swiftly. As Ferris Bueller says, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't take a look around once and awhile, you could miss it.”

Autumn is a beautiful season, but it can be bittersweet too, as it brings to our attention change, loss, dying and increased darkness. Do I stop to notice and celebrate the changes or do I move along at my usual fast-paced speed trying to ignore them? As the leaves prepare to turn colors and to fall, I want to reflect and embrace this time. This poem by Joyce Rupp speaks to me.

Falling Leaves

O falling leaves of autumn,                                                          
what mysteries of death
you proclaim
to my unwilling self

what eternal truths
you disturb
in the webbings
of my protected heart

what wildness
you evoke
in the gusty dance
of emptying winds

what mellow tenderness
you bravely breathe
in your required surrender

what challenge
you engender
through your painful twists
and turnings

what howl of homelessness
you shriek
with your exile of departure

what daring task
you evoke
as you feed the hungry soil.

O falling leaves of autumn,
with each stem
that breaks,
with each layer of perishing,

you teach me
what is required,
if I am to grow
before I die.

(from The Circle of Life by Joyce Rupp & Macrina Wiederkehr)

May the lessons of the season be our blessing.
Vikki