I’m thankful for the gift that time is, as its lesson gracefully manifests through the season of autumn.

The saying is something like, ‘fruit is always the sweetest right before it goes bad’.

So are the colors of nature brightest in autumn, putting on a vibrant fiery show, especially in the leaves that we all chase to see before they wither and drop.

There’s this scramble to make the most of it all before it’s gone. To take in the beauty of glorious foliage or the last of the season’s harvest as they make their last bid for life before the frost.  It’s quite the metaphor for life and the nature of time.

It’s always a mystery why some die young, or some die old.  There have been so many illnesses and deaths to ponder lately, at least in my circles.  But one thing I’m seeing is how in the last season of life, especially if Providence allows for a protracted illness, there is this sense of opportunity for a crystallization of all that was good and beautiful to manifest all at once.  Especially if one has lived a grateful life, making the most of the gift of whatever time they had, there is a palpable beauty and richness in a soul, no matter how debilitated a body might appear.  Somehow a person seems most alive, right before they die.

These lessons in autumn displays we relish so much have only intensified my chase for Beauty, to drink in the miracle that time offers, like sitting in a field of the last of the season’s flowers at sunset, for the briefest of moments, and contemplating God’s superfluous mercies on our often-ungrateful hearts. How much we miss!

Self-reflection
What are some recent moments of beauty you can reflect back on and see them as sprinkles of God’s grace that may not have been absorbed into your soul or given thanks for?

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Images and meditation by Renata Grzan Wieczorek. Use only with permission.