Monday, November 1, 2010

November Treads Softly

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
                     ~George Eliot                                                              
                                                      
                                                       

I was so enamored with October that November almost slipped in without my notice! It may have except that November 1st is my husband’s birthday. Although letting go of October was difficult, it helped to remind myself that it IS still autumn. We don’t officially move on until the winter solstice, around December 21st. Very few things make me as happy as autumn. I long for it all summer, wait for it, and welcome it with open arms when it arrives! But it is so brief.

The beauty of nature is that everything is cyclical. As surely as summer follows spring, fall follows summer and then come winter and spring again. We can count on it!  Standing under a tree on a windy fall day, I am reminded, as leaves fall down around me that plant life cycles, too. Those leaves began as tiny buds in springtime; some blossomed into fragrant flowers before becoming full-grown leaves; others became leaves right away. Either way, it is a process. The seed germinates into a tiny shoot which grows into a mature plant. The plant produces seeds, which are dispersed. Within each seed is the potential for new life – and the cycle continues.

As we get older, time moves so quickly. It seems we no sooner begin to enjoy one season until another begins. As children, it seemed Christmas would never come, but now, we barely store the tree and its trimmings away and, in no time, we’re taking them out again. One holiday blends into the next – the seasons merge – years hurry by and first thing we know, we're spending our days looking back on the past instead of toward the future.

Life, like nature, is cyclical. This, too, is a process. The old wither away and the young carry on.

And the cycle continues.




3 comments:

jim said...

Another beautiful descriptive blog. Thanks peggy for making us think.
It's beautiful but sad in a way. Jim

pam said...

Love this!

Anonymous said...

This is one of my fvorites. Makes one think.