The last couple of days have been cloudy, rainy, and cool. It is easy to get a little depressed, but try to remember that we all have interesting paths to travel and we never know what lies right around the corner.
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This moonrise over the lake catches the reflection of the colors of the sunset on the opposite horizon. May you experience the peace of such a moment, and may you reflect the beauty of the divine. Sometimes people, including myself, go on about the beautiful colors of autumn. The reds, oranges, yellows, golds, and browns delight us. But there is a different side of autumn. There are days of cloud and rain where the dominant colors are grey and blue. They are beautiful in their own way. People are that way also - beautiful in all their multi-faceted dimensions.
Autumn is a season of beautiful fall colors, but it also a season of building darkness. This is the time when seasonal depression begins to affect many people. You may be one of those people. Words of understanding and encouragment are helpful, but what is most helpful for many people is "light therapy" - exposure to bright light for a period of time.
There is also an element of the spiritual here. It helps to be exposed to the light of the divine. Sometimes the inner light seems to dim in us and we need exposure to the "bright light of the divine" to shine upon us. Don't neglect your "light therapy"! For a few short days in fall the needles of the tamarack (Northern Larch) turn golden, and then they fall to the ground. The tree, which many people have been fooled into thinking was an evergreen tree is revealed to be something else. Are there things about you that "fool" others? What happens when the true you is revealed? The tamarack loses nothing when its true self is revealed, except others' misconceptions? What about you?
As the new day dawns, it appears as though the milkweed seeds are "just hanging on" and waiting for a breeze to come along and carry them off to new horizons. This makes me wonder if that is often what humans do - wait for something else to move them. Perhaps that is good. We should be carried off on the winds of the divine breeze. Perhaps it is not good. We have the choice to take charge of our lives and venture forth. Perhaps the choice as humans is different than these milkweed seeds.
For several days I was away from home. I did not have the opportunity to enjoy some of the familiar sights that give me pleasure from day to day. However, there is beauty in far places. This was the sunset one evening in northwestern Illinois. It is a reminder to look and see beauty whereever you are.
Fallen to the ground and frozen in place by the morning frost, is this the end for the soaring milkweed seed?
This end is only a beginning, for the seed will eventually drop into the soil, wait out the winter, germinate in the Spring, and then grow into a flowering milkweed plant. Perhaps it will provide food for Manarch Butterflies as it matures and then finally sends its seeds floating on the winds of next autumn's breezes. Should you ever feel that you are "fallen to the ground and frozen in place" remember that such ends can be beginnings! On this cool autumn morning the lake is giving off heat. What a beautiful time it is to sit in reflection and slowly see the glorious colors of fall come to life. Enjoy the moment.
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AuthorJoel Kreger is a writer who grew up in Minnesota, spent many years of his life in Iowa and Wisconsin, and now lives in Minnesota. His life experience includes careers of serving 17 years as a Lutheran parish pastor, working 18 years as a public school teacher, and now writing as a novelist and blogger. Archives
April 2019
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