Minutes ago I turned my 3 calendar pages from August to September. Outside and Inside our home, I “put away” summer: a bowl of lemons on my bay window, a patriotic wreath at the front door, a wooden sign of a beach pail and shovel loudly encouraging me to PLAY, a coffee table display of a flower arrangement with a children’s book of summer poems! My husband then lowered boxes down from our attic labeled FALL, and my dining room floor now holds scarecrows, pumpkins, and assorted orange and yellows waiting to be placed “someplace new this year,” to officially greet the new season. I will take my time over the next several days to accomplish this mission, as some of you may remember last month’s lament on letting go of summer. I will be deliberate as I go about tucking in, here and there, bits of autumn everywhere… … …whispering a prayer of thanks that I am still here at least one more time to welcome fall to my home and my soul once again!
I have always been a lover of ritual and a firm believer in the importance of reckoning with, naming, honoring all of our days. As Annie Dillard reminds us, “beauty and grace surround us daily…whether or not we perceive them…the least we can do is show up!” How do you show up? How do you mark your transitioning from one lovely season to another?
Many of us mark the coming of fall by changing our wardrobe!! We can easily make this mundane task a spiritual exercise by simply taking the time to reckon with and “thank'“ pieces of clothing that have a strong connection to events and memories shared this past summer, as you gently put them away. “See you next year!” And relish those favorite sweaters and flannels that can have you anticipating the vistas of gorgeous foliage you’ll soon be seeing, and the stews and crisps you’ll be savoring! “Welcome back!! I’m so grateful I’m lucky enough to have you to keep me warm.” This ritual practically places us front and center with St Paul, who was probably inspired to write this well known passage doing his own summer to fall wardrobe exchange! “So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense…and regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.” (Col 3:14)
Take some sweet time to savor the decor, the clothing, the foods of this cherished season, and if you’d like to, comment below with your insights and thoughts: I’d be so happy to read them!
Let me end by sharing a poem I wrote while in Grand Isle, VT in 2019, when I stayed in a cabin alone by Lake Champlain, writing my book, “A Seasoned Life.” I wish you all a honed sense of the roundness of things…how our seasons keep coming round, shaping us…granting a dose of light within… And I hope you have a blessed month of September!
12 Days Into September
Watching farm trucks back n forth with loads of chopped corn
Pieces of corn husks blowing off from the wind going by at 45 mph
Where will they go when all is said and done?
Tangled in roadside weeds
Hitching a ride in a passing car’s undercarriage
Some will tumble a thousand times in the breeze only to end up 6 counties away
On an abandoned farmhouse windowsill
Woven into a kindergartener’s blond pigtail
Carried home to a squirrel’s nest, eaten by a cow owned by the farmer who chopped the corn in the first place
Funny how it all keeps going round
