Autumn Appreciation

 

Amazing Autumn apples crunchy and sweet. Raw or cooked, in drinks, desserts, breakfast, lunch. If you are seasonally inclined to notice, apples are popping up everywhere and I am delighted. Yes, my coffee is an apple crisp latte and it's delicious, thanks Concord Coffee. I happened upon this new book about the history of apples, and it has been an invitation to imagine all the centuries of apples and learn how they were used and where they have grown. I have been fascinated and my appreciation for apples is deeper than ever because I know some of their story. Did you know that if you take some seeds from a certain type of apple (like Bramley, Gala, or Granny Smith) and plant them, you won't know what kind of apples you will get? Unless you cross pollinate to ensure the same type will grow. It's a bit of a guess. What an apple-y mystery. I imagine and remember my walks through apple orchards, only a couple times have I been able to do that (in Massachusetts and in Kent, England), and each time it was pure magic.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

   Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

   With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

   And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

      To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

   With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

      For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

- from "To Autumn", John Keats

I hear these poetic words in my head when I think of apple orchards. This is always the first poem I think of when the topic of Autumn is upon us. Thanks to John Keats, his short, quiet life in Hampstead, London has gifted us with these words that have offered much fruitfulness since his day. Why poetry? It rustles our imagination and invokes the sheen of gleaming fruits and sweetness of the harvest through words that conjure images in our minds. It is the gift of abundance from our Creator. 

Autumn is harvest and bounty, and yet it is falling leaves, falling apples, and the ideas of dying from a human perspective. It is memory carefully held and drawn upon. Fruitfulness has its season and then it falls. For me, it is a season with loss - today marks 15 years since my Dad's passing. Truly I live in this, in a season of memory, where he is always alive. I was so young/foolish when he passed, and did not truly appreciate all he was, and now I have the rest of my life to appreciate all he was and to honor him and his goodness in my life. 

We cannot have seasons without a feeling of loss somewhere. God blesses us with seasons so that we can round back to it after a year, to reflect on ourselves and thank God for His many gifts. We need these reminders, because we so easily forget ourselves and where we come from. Reflecting on loss can lead to meditations on thankfulness and appreciation for that which we do not have with us anymore, and that which blessed us. May this be a season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.

But Where Shall I Find Courage?

 

"But where shall I find courage?" asked Frodo. "That is what I chiefly need."
"Courage is found in unlikely places," said Gildor. "Be of good hope!"

-The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien

Every couple years I feel the deep desire to re-read The Lord of the Rings. There are so many nourishing aspects of this story that reminds me to hold onto hope, and stay encouraged. I don't know about you, but I feel like I could benefit greatly by receiving extra doses of courage. Each day can throw a world of disappointment that buries any light I was carrying. It can be quickly swept away with someone's harshness, negativity, or some kind of defeat. Something will surely come that makes us each feel inadequate in whatever way that strikes us most severely. I try to view these kinds of things as speedbumps, something to slow me down and consider how I could learn and grow from this scenario. But it still hurts. I still feel defeated, in whatever way. 

When you read The Lord of the Rings, you join the journey of these characters as they fall into defeat over and over. The very notion of the main task of the whole book is to be rid of an evil. To destroy the one ring, which is itself a heavy burden and also a temptation to fall into its power and will. This is a backwards journey of a treasure hunt, as it is a giving up of power to save the world from evil reigning over all things. It's a journey that requires the fellowship to set aside all selfish desires for the greater good. And it confronts defeat over and over. Places and times are plentiful where they could give up.

Whilst I was reading through this first part of the story, I wrote in my journal a few times about how I was reading certain sections. When I finished the passage through Moria (the underground mines) I felt the sadness and my heart sank. I could feel the loss the fellowship endured with Gandalf's fall and their subsequent feelings of confusion and defeat. Tears and sadness hit them all as they emerged into the sunlight from Moria, but they could not sit and mourn by the hills as they were in danger even where they were outside the gate. They had to continue onward and they entered the woods heartbroken and frightened, and yet they did not know the rest and encouragement they would soon receive by coming into Lothlórien, deep in the woods. It's a beautiful image of prevenient grace going before them, and of a place that reaches deeply into their souls to restore and offer encouragement with what they need. A place to pause, reflect, mourn, and rest. But not to stay. Their visit with the elves equips them to move forward as they must do, some gifts and fond farewells from the elves, with light to go with them (wisdom and courage to keep going). 

We may need a Lothlórien sometimes. I know I do. When I feel defeated, sad, lonely, and discouraged. It is soon the next step to help me on the journey and remind me of the task to keep moving in hope. It is the Word of the Lord, the life of Jesus. In these things I turn and see how Jesus has gone through it all before me, to take comfort in Him. To rest in Him. In everything look to Him, and follow where He is leading. To equip me in the journey.

"Despair, or folly?" said Gandalf. "It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not. It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope."

-The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien

Fluttering Caramel Leaf

 

A fluttering caramel leaf breaks free
Settling to a different view to see
The world from above, ambition climbs -
Separating itself in its thought-filled mind -
Dreading any pause it seeks more
Wind, more drift, more air to score
A loftier stance, higher and free,
Missing a lovely spot to pause and be
Deeper in what the leaf was made,
Firstly to provide solar panel and shade -
Eventually though, as the seasons turn,
There's something new for leaf to learn -
To embrace the landing after flight
After gathering a glorious new height -
Landing softly under branches bare,
A covering, a blanket, essential root care
The divine gift itself must be
Willing to devote itself to Thee.

Once upon a hot summer afternoon, the girls in my family gathered to create little projects with an Autumnal flare. As one being anything but crafty myself, it was a delight to simply make something with my hand, spending time with girls in my family, embracing some lovely things to come in the Autumn season approaching. Do you feel it in the air yet? That gentle Autumn vibe? 

On Summer Rains

 

Peaking out the window at the rain-filled sky

It's already rained this afternoon
Heat rises and falls in the blink of an eye -
Setting apart no time of day for rain
But any hour, any minute clouds will try
To hold in the abundance -
Yet it overflows
A flood not held secure
As it goes
Falling without regard of their store
All the earth is open, land or sea,
The rain falls, it's both wild and free -
Surmise the force and power in clouds
An attempt to predict is knowhow -
And still limited - clouds act in accordance 
To the nature it is - able to spin and dance
Across landscapes at the will of winds
From all the corners - still God within.