Nature in All Its Glory

How beautifully leaves grow old.

How full of light and color 

are their last days.
~John Burroughs

There's probably a lesson there, isn't there? Cold gusts will send more leaves crashing from their perch this week. Leaves dance their way to their inevitable end, whether it's crushed underfoot or crowded into overstuffed plastic bags.

As I age, do I focus on the aches and pains? Am I consumed with perceived slights? Do I get set in my ways? Do I resist change?

A change of perspective often helps us see things in a different light. Last week, I was coming home from Manhattan after a fun Halloween evening with the girls. 

I so enjoyed my time with my little trick or treaters - a 4-year-old bumblebee named Brooke and a 6-year-old witch named Kinley. (Kinley insisted that she was a good witch - not a bad one.)

However, I was not looking forward to the doctor's appointment scheduled for the next day in Hutchinson. After getting Kinley on the bus, I drove back to Hutchinson and had some time before my appointment. So I switched my dress shoes for tennis shoes so I could walk the paths of Dillon Nature Center.

If ever there was a natural blood pressure reliever, it has to be Dillon Nature Center on a beautiful fall morning.

Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you,
and the storms their energy,
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
--Naturalist John Muir

During this month of Thanksgiving, Lord, open my eyes to the light, the color and my blessings that would fill more sacks than the autumn leaves.

 

A few days ago, I walked along the edge of the lake
and was treated to the crunch and rustle of leaves
with each step I made.
The acoustics of this season are different,
and all sounds, no matter how hushed,
are as crisp as autumn air.

                                                         --Eric Sloane

Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.
William Cullen Bryant

falling leaves
hide the path
so quietly
John Bailey
Autumn, A Haiku Year.

Autumn wins you best by this, 
its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.
Robert Browning

Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn.
Elizabeth Lawrence

Thank you, Lord, for autumn!

A Thanksgiving Prayer

A Thanksgiving Prayer

By Rev. Linda McDermott

First United Methodist Church, Fort Worth, Texas

(Illustrated by me - many of the fall photos 

 were taken at Dillon Nature Center in Hutchinson, 

some this year and others in previous years)

 

God who loves us, who deserves our gratitude for so much that is good,

We offer our prayers of thanksgiving to you:

 

For the beauty of the earth — bright orange leaves mixed with green,

 

 a gentle rain, 

 a spider’s delicate web.

 

For friends, for family, even acquaintances who offer us kindness, 

who bring us laughter, who hold us to a higher standard.

 

 Lord of all that is good and nourishing to our well being, we give you thanks.

 

All of life is a wonder. The very breath we take, the ability to rouse ourselves each new day,

 a single blade of grass that holds such miracles of symmetry, 

 

a tiny distant star whose real size boggles our minds.

 

We take our lives for granted — as if it were our right, and not our gift.

We take our days and our loves and our passions for granted — as if tomorrow will verify their importance and our present moments have other things to occupy us.

 

Gracious God, who lavishes goodness upon us even in some of our darkest moments,

 help us to see your goodness, remind us to have grateful hearts, 

give us receptive minds,

 and grant us ever-gracious ways of living in harmony with each other.

 

And in our gratitude, make us to be instruments of your peace.

Amen.

The Beauty Of Letting Go

The trees are about to show you

 just how beautiful letting go can be.

A friend posted that quote on Facebook last week. I had just visited Dillon Nature Center in Hutchinson on a fall afternoon. I had a few minutes to wander the paths there while I was waiting to pick up another friend who was at the dialysis center.

The trees weren't yet at their peak, but with a hint of fall in the air, it was a beautiful detour after I ran the errands I'd been forced to delay during wheat planting time.

Without my afternoon respite at Dillon Nature Center, maybe I would have read the quote and scrolled on by. But with those images of colorful leaves still on my mind, I jotted down the message on the notepad on my desk.

With other things on my to-do list, I didn't think about the quote until I started to compile the photos into a blog post. But this time, I read the quote in a whole new way.

The trees are about to show you

 just how beautiful letting go can be.

"Letting go ..." It's good for more than just leaves on trees. Someone had said something to me that really bothered me. I don't think the person meant any harm. But I stewed and fretted over the words nonetheless. In honesty, I gave them a lot more weight than they deserved.

 

I am someone who does better writing my feelings out, rather than trying to speak them. I composed a lengthy email to this person, but I left it in my "drafts" rather than hitting "send." I had a busy day, so it sat in my computer, but it also took up space in my mind.

And then I opened up my work-in-progress blog post, and I read those words about letting go in a whole new way. In that moment, it had nothing to do with the beauty of fall leaves. It had everything to do with "letting go" of the hurt.

So, instead of pushing "send" on the email, I deleted it from the drafts. I may still be working on "deleting" it from my mind, but I'm trying.

Around the same time, my Guideposts devotional had these words:

O God, give me the wisdom to know 

when to hold on and when to let go.

Only a few days before, I had stood in the quietness and watched the sun filter through trees, casting light and shadow over scene after scene.

I decided I needed to reflect His Light, too. I admit it took me awhile to get there.

Psalm 130:3-5New International Version (NIV)

³ If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
    Lord, who could stand?
⁴ But with you there is forgiveness,
    so that we can, with reverence, serve you.

On another scroll through Facebook, there was a quote shared by another friend:

Letting go ... forgiveness ... kindness: Those attributes seemed to be the right thing to do - even if the leaves weren't quite ready to do the same quite yet. 

***

As I was finishing up this post, I got a call from Randy to go and pick him up from a hay field several miles away. And wouldn't you know it, a song came on K-LOVE, Matthew West's "Forgiveness." (Click on the link to listen.)

Here are just some of the words:

It's the hardest thing to give away
And the last thing on your mind today
It always goes to those who don't deserve
It's the opposite of how you feel
When the pain they cause is just too real.
It takes everything you have to say the word
FORGIVENESS

It was just another instance that one of my friends calls a "God wink." 

***

I'm linked to Tell His Story with Jennifer Dukes Lee. Click on the link to read more stories of faith.

A Path Less Traveled

This quote is found in the Dillon Nature Center educational area. I added it to one of the images I took on our recent walk on the nature trails there.

Sometimes I go nowhere on the treadmill. Sometimes I kick up dust on our dirt road. And, once in awhile, I travel the road less traveled.

Randy and I had a little extra time between appointments in Hutchinson last week. So we went to Dillon Nature Center and walked the trails there for a change of pace - pun intended.

The birds sang. (No, I couldn't capture them in my camera viewfinder as they darted quickly from tree to tree. But I did catch glimpses of red and brown among the branches of trees as they flitted from perch to perch.)

The overhead branches formed a canopy of light and shadow over the nature trail. And I couldn't help but think of the very first song I sang for a music festival in junior high.

I know a green cathedral

A shadowed forest shrine

Where leaves in love join hands above

And arch your prayer and mine.

It's a lesson in irony to remember lyrics from a long-ago solo and not be able to remember why I came into a room. But it's my reality, it seems.

Some of the annual flowers brightened our way. My favorite was this beautiful columbine.

Flowering shrubs provided fragrance and beauty, too.

The sun created bursts of light through red buds and green leaves.

 

It was almost as if these cypress roots are like little people enjoying the view from the shoreline of the pond.

We enjoyed the view, too.

Autumn Leaves

As the leaves' color turns from green to shades of yellow, red and brown, the classic song, "Autumn Leaves," drifts through my mind. Actually, it's getting rather annoying ... the song, not the leaves.

My daily walks are punctuated with the colors of fall and the aroma of leaves as they make this transition from summer green vibrancy to autumn hues.

I found some new glimpses of fall when I went to the dentist. Yes, it seems an unlikely place for an autumn reverie. However, I wish I could have taken a photo of a squirrel that was just outside the window: I was otherwise occupied with my mouth pried open at the time.

The dental trip involved a new crown and a hefty bill. But, I decided I'd cheer myself up with a visit to the Dillon Nature Center in Hutchinson.

And, as the credit card commercial goes, that part of the trip was priceless.

The trees were just beginning to turn, so I'd love to return in a couple of weeks.

But it was a beautiful day, just enough nip in the air for a sweater as I wandered the grounds at the nature center.

This quote from Eric Sloane was perfectly illustrated:

A few days ago, I walked along the edge of the lake
and was treated to the crunch and rustle of leaves
with each step I made.
The acoustics of this season are different,
and all sounds, no matter how hushed,
are as crisp as autumn air.

And, just so I'm not alone with the acoustics of a song that won't leave my head, here's Nat King Cole's version of the classic "Autumn Leaves." Enjoy!