My oh my, how time flies! It seams like just yesterday, when I had just noticed how the leaves were beginning too first bud out, all fresh and green, and now they are all a blaze with color! Who turned on the trees? The air is delightfully cool and smells of the crispness of autumn. Fall seams to assault our senses with a frenzy of color, sharp, woodsy smells, and a host of memories of the year that’s been passing.
My family and I love to drive out and drink in the color this time of year. I believe that one of our favorite things to do, is to travel out in the forest preserves where we can stride through the woods, kicking leaves into damp, pungent heaps that then reveal a carnival of color.
It’s interesting, how words that cluster around the word “autumn”, are as extravagant as the season itself: magnificent, glorious, blazing, russet, reds, glowing. Like the leaves themselves, they almost constitute an overdose. You want to step back, blink, and catch your breath.
I always feel so different each fall. Sometimes I feel invigorated , sometimes melancholy. The feelings evoked by the dying leaves, are as varied as the colors that coat the trees, much like that of a short-lived butterfly.
The color we see in the leaves, depends on which part of the spectrum is being absorbed and what’s reflected away. Leaves have lots of chlorophyll in spring and summer, making them reflect green. In the fall, chlorophyll recedes and summer green turns to golden-yellow or blazing red as carotenoids and antioxidants have their moment on stage. It’s all part of a process that reminds us of the power, and mystery in God's great creation.
God's wonderful, yearly show of color puts the “awe” into autumn for me. Fall soon starts to look like the night sky to me. As I look at the grandeur, I become more conscious of God's amazing power and might. I just sand back in awe of the beauty of His creation. Even in places where the landscape stays much the same year-round, fall is a time of change. It’s a time of endings – and new beginnings. The air cools, turning thoughts to lighting fires, picking apples, creating cinnamon smells in the kitchen and preparing for the holidays. Fall is also a time to batten down hatches. Here on the farm, we’re closing down the garden; taking stock, getting prepared for the cold winter ahead.
Sometimes, I tend to feel a wee bit sad when I sit out in God's creation watching the red and gold of autumn turn to brown as the leaves die and fall. However, I’m now finding that autumn is a glorious time to pause, look back over the year and give thanks for everything that the Lord had done in our lives and what He will do in the future.
