Bringing the Fall Bounty Inside

It’s Mirror-Mirror Monday, and I’m remembering many fall days spent outside under golden trees, gathering leaves and acorns and all kinds of specimens.  I remember my mom ironing leaves between wax paper for us, and to this day still find leaves pressed between pages of childhood books. Fall is the time to bring the outdoors in! It doesn’t take much know-how or any money to make the inside of your house harvest-worthy, and its a good thing since we’d much rather be outside enjoying these beautiful fall days!  But for those blustery few, when you’re stuck inside, here’s a few ideas from our home to yours!

{a} serving up pine cones with a side of gourd (b) berry garlands go up in autumn and serve their purpose through Valentine’s Day {c} orange and brown buntings leftover from a birthday party make everyday festive {d} my children’s favorite fall decoration: shocking {e} simple rows of candles and a wood shaving rose wreath, random leaves and gourds
{a} an antique tractor from this weekend’s garage sale-ing chugs past a pumpkin on its way upstairs {b} a little vase of mums adds color to the sink {c} more mum sprigs (casualties from gardening with preschoolers) and gourds {d} Ball jars that are daily filled with treasures – acorns, decapitated mums, and the millions of “but-this-one-is-special” leaves that make their way inside

Happy Harvest, all!

On Falling Leaves and Pressing On

I spent the day off the beaten trail with my little adventurers. It was spontaneous, unplanned, and absolutely what I needed.
Fall has always been my favorite season.  But this year has been different.  I will never cease to be amazed at the way things in the natural world around us are wired and created to give visual clues and methodology and language to the reality of our experience. In the last few weeks, as life has begun to settle down and routines have begun to form, I find I’m confronted with the grief that has lingered these last few months since the whirlwind of our spring: primarily the death of my sister and our moving away (albeit not far) from the community we’d established for most of our marriage back here to my hometown.

Seeing fall, experiencing the slow decent, the unabashed beauty that preceeds what will inevitably be cold and harsh and devoid of visible growth, has served as a little whisper in my ear, reminding me to keep putting one foot in front of the other, to keep hope alive. In the change of seasons, the death of dreams, even the most searing losses, there is always hope. Winter always follows fall, but spring always follows winter. Summer lingers beyond that. And fall will come again.I once heard a man who had traveled a little farther down life’s journey say that if he could do one thing differently in his youth, he would have pushed into the pain and the trials and grief, rather than expend all his energy working to avoid it.  With the help of some amazing listeners, and the rich, deep grace that seeps in to my life again and again, even when I least expect it, and when, for sure, I am undeserving, I am pressing in.

I am holding out hope that Jesus, who came to bind up the brokenhearted, to give freedom and bring light to the darkest corners of our world and of my heart, to comfort and provide for those who grieve, will shape me into an oak of righteousness (Isaiah 61),  that His life will be more evident in me because of these losses.  That the fear and mistrust and control that the loss exposes in me would be changed by His love, and made into something beautiful. I am hoping.

Welcome, Autumn

Fall.
Without hesitation,
my favorite season.

The harvest.
The reaping.
The gathering in
and the gathering together.

Leaves turning ablaze
a final act of beauty
before their dance of decent.

Making ready for the cold,
still winter,
whose dormancy silently
makes room for new life.

Going out in glory.