THERE COMES a time when every summer will have something of autumn about it.A. Bartlett Giamatti, “The Green Fields of the Mind”
IN AUTUMN’S vibrant colors there are reminders of summer’s fullness of life, of winter’s impending bleakness, and of the prospect of spring not far beyond. Autumn compels us to think about life’s transience and continuity all in one.Allen M. Young, Small Creatures and Ordinary Places
DAYS decrease, And autumn grows, Autumn in everything.Robert Browning, “Andrea del Sarto”
WE THANK Thee, then, O Father, for all things bright and good, / The seed time and the harvest, our life, our health, and food; / No gifts have we to offer, for all Thy love imparts, / But that which Thou desirest, our humble, thankful hearts.Matthias Claudius, “We Plow the Fields and Scatter”
WHEN the leaves fall, the whole earth is a cemetery pleasant to walk in. I love to wander and muse over them in their graves. Here there are no lying nor vain epitaphs. … Let us walk in the cemetery of leaves—this is your true Greenwood Cemetery.Henry David Thoreau, Autumnal Tints
I SAW old autumn in the misty morn Stand shadowless like silence, listening To silence.Thomas Hurd, “Ode: Autumn”
FOR EVERYTHING there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted. …Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 (NRSV)
GOD changes times and seasons.Ecclesiastes 2:21-21 (NRSV)
FOR the past few years, it has become my custom in autumn to evaluate what needs to be relinquished in my life. Sometimes possessions weigh me down. At other times it is my character flaws that burden not only me but everyone who lives with me as well. I look into my closet and my heart each autumn and ask, “Is there anything I could surrender that would help me become a freer person?” Macrina Wiederkehr and Joyce Rupp, The Circle of Life
THE TREES of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase.Ezekiel 34:27-27 (NRSV)
CHANGE ME, oh God, Into a tree in autumn. And let my dying Be a blaze of glory!Esther Popel, “October Prayer”
FOR the fruit of all creation, thanks be to God. For the gifts to ev’ry nation, thanks be to God. For the plowing, sowing, reaping, silent growth while we are sleeping, Future needs in earth’s safekeeping, thanks be to God.Fred Pratt Green, “For the Fruit of All Creation”
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Related Elsewhere:
Past Reflections columns include:
CT Classics (Oct. 26, 2006)
Spiritual Classics (Sept. 18, 2006)
Proverbs (Aug. 15, 2006)
Summer (June 27, 2006)
Philosophers’ Potpourri (June 9, 2006)
Ponder These Things (May 17, 2006)
Holy Week (April 4, 2006)
Evening Prayer (March 10, 2006)
Morning Prayers (Feb. 6, 2006)
Hope (Jan. 16, 2006)
Christmas (Dec. 19, 2005)
Poetry (Dec. 12, 2005)
Grace that Surprises (Oct. 3, 2005)
Friendship (August 31, 2005)
Wisdom That Sticks (August 8, 2005)
His Body, His Blood (June 08, 2005)
On Baptism (April 25, 2005)
Discovering God (April 07, 2005)
Welcoming the Stranger (Feb. 22, 2005)
The Church and Mission (Feb. 02, 2005)
