Year after year, I do my best to explain to people why I love autumn so much. I have taken pictures, given sermons and written newsletter articles, and yet, it is so hard to capture. This year, I have written a prayer [see below]. It’s kind of silly to try and explain the prayer before you read it, and still …
To me it is a special time of year. It’s not perfect, it’s not universally loved by everyone. There are certainly spring lovers and summer lovers and I guess some winter lovers (I do so love the first flurries of a snowstorm), but this is the time of year where we regather as a community, and this year, it feels so wonderful that we are much more physically able to do that than in the past few years. It is also a time when our social and spiritual events are heart-centered and celebratory of the bonds we share.
I know too that this can be a difficult time of year for so many people. The growing darkness can be a challenge and the holidays can bring baggage that has been with some of us for years, and for this, let us be kind and gentle with each other.
As often as I have thought striving for perfection is a foolish undertaking, I know that there are days in the fall that I would most likely describe as perfect. The colors of the leaves, the crispness in the air, the smells of autumn wafting through the air.
Whatever your favorite season, I wish for us all a fall of beauty, love and connection.
And now my:
Autumn Lover’s Prayer
So many different feelings have been processed over the past few years.
So many things that so many of us never expected or even imagined.
Yet, here we are. The wheel turns from summer to autumn. From long warm days to long cooler nights.
There is a hope – a prayer really – that I feel in my soul at this time of year.
I pray that the beauty of the fall calls us to feel the sense of the divine that is in us, between us and all around us.
I pray that the time of growing darkness of the journey through the season helps us to slow down, breathe and reflect on the importance of our interconnection.
I pray that the true core of the rituals and celebrations of the coming holiday season can someday actually fill us with the spirit of oneness and love so often spoken of and too often a struggle to observe.
And I pray for us all, an awakening of the precious and fragile nature of our brief time on this earth, for true love of neighbor, care for the planet and how what happens to one really does happen to all.
Amen
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