Wednesday Wonder

Oh, the irony!

As everything seems to begin again after Labour Day there is perhaps a certain irony in this renewed energy and busyness.

This ‘back-to-school’ time of year has everything restarting. School starts, then after school activities. Around the church we get all our groups and activities going again after the summer hiatus.

Bible study, UCW, Kingsview Kids, choir, Club 505, to name just a few things that are starting up these days. Planning for new activities and groups is also underway and they will start this fall as well.

Meanwhile, nature is winding down. Just as we ramp up the activity and energy level, nature turns hers down. Yes, there will be that burst of fabulous fall colour shortly, in some places already. But after that, most of nature begins to prepare for the blanket of snow winter brings and the chance to just sleep for a bit.

Now, I no longer have a young child who is going to school and taking part in all those extracurricular activities anymore, but I remember thinking when I did that sleep sounded pretty good about the end of September.

Just as we get to our busiest, nature gets to her most quiet. Even as nature starts toward quiet, it creates busy for us. All those leaves need to be raked! Fortunately, or unfortunately as the case may be, we won’t have as many leaves this fall. Many of them have already come off the big maples in the backyard. This year has been tough for maple trees. Hopefully, the quiet will bring them back and renew them come spring.

We use summer to bring us back and renew us. We slow or even still our routines during the long summer days. The heat often slows us down, we linger as the sun keeps shining longer. And then, the briskness of the fall seems to give us more energy again. Granted, in the last few years it seems like that briskness takes longer to get here. Not complaining, because soon enough brisk will not be the word we are using.

There is an ebb and flow to nature. Our days often follow, but somehow, just now, we have changed and seem to be going in opposite directions for just a moment.

Maybe this year, we too can enjoy the quieting that comes as fall advances. In the midst of the busyness of the human condition, we might want to look toward nature and allow ourselves to take some moments to slow and breathe.

God shares moments that take our breath away and slow us down simply because we don’t want to miss the colour and wonder of fall. Don’t miss the colour and wonder of all that is starting up at this time of year either. Try to find the balance so that when winter arrives, you are not spending all your time sound asleep.

Even the natural world, for all its seeming slumber, is still active beneath the ground. May your spirit also breathe in the wonder and quietly absorb what the Spirit has to offer.