Dear Friends,

‘The Fall’ – an Americanism for the season of autumn – but a very visual one – leaf-fall is so much a part of autumn.  And the colours of those leaves before they fall surely strike us all.  We will focus on this in today’s reflections, hoping that it will encourage us all to look around us at such beauty before ‘the fall’ comes to an end until next year.  You will find a few quotes about the season – one of them in particular gave me pause for thought: “How beautifully leaves grow old! How full of light and colour are their last days!’’  What a wonderful picture of old age to aspire to!

Today we can listen to ‘An Irish Blessing’ from the Sacred Weave CD – perhaps we can pray this for each other’s families hoping they too have noticed the beauty around them at this time of year.

On October 8th, a Sunday this year, we celebrate our 381st Foundation Day!  That evening we are having a special Evening Prayer on zoom & hope many of our friends will join us.  An email has gone out to all but in case you haven’t had it details and link are below:

 

Sunday 8 October at 5.30pm – Evening Prayer by Zoom    
Zoom link is below (for those of you who regularly attend Sunday eve prayer it is the usual link). No need to book a place – just come! 

Join Zoom Meeting – Oct 8, 2023 05:30 PM
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88333391691?pwd=SjhrYnFBUEZndVVIMTRRTEJqRVduQT09

Meeting ID: 883 3339 1691
Passcode: 301123

 

With our love & prayer

 

 

  • “Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.” Jim Bishop.

 

  • “Autumn that year painted the countryside in vivid shades of scarlet, saffron, and russet, and the days were clear and crisp under harvest skies.” Sharon Kay Penman.

 

  • “Autumn flings her fiery cloak over the beech and oak.”

 

  • “Autumn is the hardest season. The leaves are all falling, and they’re falling like they’re falling in love with the ground.” Andrea Gibson.

 

  • “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” Albert Camus.

 

  • “How beautifully leaves grow old! How full of light and colour are their last days!’’

 

 

AUTUMN

the season of vulnerability

when the great arms of oak

stretch their summer leaves

towards the wild October winds.

all that has been life and green

is stripped from strong trees,

and the tall wide branches

seem to be deathly wounded.

this is the season of vulnerability

when the trees open wide to wounding,

when all their summer security

is given away to another season.

Joyce Rupp

 

 

The Leaves are Ageing 

 

The leaves are ageing:

some rust

others seep yellow

through green

a few resist

this brittle change –

charge me with love

that I may fan

amber, red, crimson

into flame

then fall, light

as the skin of a chrysalis

Mary Palmer

 

 

In this lovely season when the dance of surrender is obvious, we find large spaces left where something beautiful once lived.  As one by one the leaves let go, a precious emptiness appears in the trees.  The naked beauty of the branches can be seen, the birds abandoned nests become visible.  The new spaces of emptiness reveal mountain ridges.  At night if you stand beneath a tree & gaze upward, stars now peer through the branches.  This is an important autumn lesson – when certain things fall away, there are other things that can be seen more clearly.

 

This same truth can be celebrated in our personal lives.  When we are able to let go of a relationship that is not healthy, the heart is given more room to grow.  We are able to receive more people into our lives whose gifts we never noticed.  These people come to us with their own visions and dreams. 

 

Macrina Wiederhehr