Autumn Breeze

Photo by: Tyler Arboretum

As a child, I never cared for fall. Maybe it was that it meant school was back in session or the simple fact that I didn't really care for the color orange. I'm not really sure what it was that set me against the season, but in my old age (ha) I have come to really appreciate and love this time of year.

For me, autumn is a time of great reflection. Leaves are changing from lush green to shades of amber, ruby and gold. You can step outside your front door and hear the crisp leaves scrapping against the sidewalk and driveway. It's a time for pumpkin everything, the scent of candy corn, the cloak of cool fall breeze. This is a blessed time of great harvest. The fields of many hard working farmers are worked to receive the fruit of their labor. You start to smell people around you, even in the city, begin to warm up their fire places and as you inhale that heavenly wood burning scent, you heart is warmed and set aglow.

This is the season of roaring football crowds. It is the start to the decorating season; wonderful months of cherished nick-knacks and ornamentation. Our little witches and super hero's grace the streets screaming trick or treat and it takes you back to those days when you were a little witch or super hero.

This is a season of mom's homemade chili, hot chocolate and dare I say it...peppermint mocha's. Everyone senses the holiday's among us and it stirs us all in different ways, but there is a presence here and beautiful spirit filled presence that is moving. I feel so connected to God in this season. I become the farmers field that reaps what its sewn. I blow with the breeze through the hair of a child. I glow like an ember in last nights fire. I glisten like the dew on a freshly picked pumpkin. I am still the little girl all dressed up like a princess, but now in this age it is not trick or treat, but dancing with my Savior so sweet.

Today is a day when I can breathe in the world. Not the TV, or the books, or the class lectures, or my neighbors politics, but today, I breathe in God's world. Today, as with every day in Christ, the colors of my leaves are changing. I'm constantly changing as that love that understanding and those seasons of my life change. I'm so thankful for the cornucopia of blessings I have been graced with and I'm so blessed to be able to share these days with those God has placed in my life.