Change Is Coming

(Watercolor study of a maple leaf)

If you haven't noticed the brilliant colors of nature this past month, then you are either blind or in the desert somewhere.  Beauty beckons you to behold every golden aspen or brilliant red maple in the neighborhood or countryside.  Springtime is beautiful but then comes autumn and the knockout display really ramps up the show. In keeping with the leaf theme, let me share a song with you by pianist Yuhki Kuramoto titled Sonnet in the Woods:

Fall brings with it the those seasonal changes that we make adjustments to such as cooler temps, leaves changing to brilliant colors, then falling, warmer wardrobe choices, and setting our clocks back.  Some of these changes we welcome and enjoy, while others can be a nuisance or undesirable.  Just like the larger setting of life! Life is never static, but constantly changing.  We grow older, our kids grow up, our jobs change, we move, people die.  Babies are born. Health issues arise.  Finances fluctuate.  

How does one position one's self to successfully navigate change? Certainly there are aspects of change that bring joy and interesting new options.  We welcome variety! Sometimes change creates difficulties, pain, discouragement, and loss.  We can choose to push through and be valiant, seeking to learn from change and grow in character.  

One thing that never changes and is always a constant is the faithful love of God.  Psalm 136 writes over and over again that the faithful love of the Lord endures forever.  We can count on that like an anchor for our souls in the middle of change, the chaos in the world, and the stresses of daily life.  God is in control of history and our personal histories.  I like how Frederick Buechner wrote:  God acts in history and in your and my brief histories not as the puppeteer who sets the scene and works the strings but rather as the great director who no matter what role fate casts us in conveys to us somehow from the wings, if we have our eyes, ears, hearts open and sometimes even if we don't, how we can play those roles in a way to enrich and ennoble and hallow the whole vast drama of things including our own small but crucial parts in it.  (emphasis mine)

(watercolor study of Sandhill Crane migration- Platte River)

Something Told the Wild Geese

Something told the wild geese

It was time to go.

Though the fields lay golden,

Something whispered---"Snow."

Leaves were green and stirring,

Berries, luster-glossed,

But beneath warm feathers,

Something cautioned---"Frost."

All the sagging orchards

Steamed with amber spice,

But each wild breast stiffened

At remembered ice.

Something told the wild geese

It was time to fly---

Summer sun was on their wings,

Winter in their cry.

---Rachel Field.

Live bravely and beautifully!