Categories: uncategorized
Date: 02 November 2006 10:33:33
I'm always aware of the changing of the seasons, its one of the reasons I couldn't live anywhere tropical- I'd hate to be stuck in the summer all the time! But this year we seem to have had a warm summer followed by a very mild, and very short autumn, and the change is even more noticable. Only a week or so ago I was noticing the leaves turning, and thinking I'd blog something about autumn being on the way- walking down the hill from our road and crunching the fallen leaves under foot, I noticed how something so simple makes you feel strangely alive, and lifts even the lowest of spirits. If you had seen me walking to church on Tuesday night you'd have thought I'd gone crazy, but I just had to run through those piles of leaves and kick them into the air. I don't care how old you are, some things you just shouldn't grow out of!
But then before I knew it, it was as if mother nature had got bored of that, and all of a sudden, within the space of a week, its winter! Only last week I was still able to walk to work in a fairly thin jumper, and now I'm having to dig out my gloves and hat and wrap up against the cold. Now I'm the last to complain about it getting cold and winter coming round- there's always been something special about this season for me, maybe it comes from being born in the coldest part of a particularly cold winter, I don't know. But its definately my favourite time of year, particularly this time, when autumn is just behind us, and the leaves are still lying on the ground, but are edged with frost. Its the time of bonfires and woodsmoke, of seeing your breath when you step outside, of cold cheeks and red noses, and that smell of frost in the morning. Clear blue skies which go on forever, and the bare earth from which life will come again. It may be a time when everything seems to have died, but it also holds so much promise. And in that, I can't help but rejoice, and feel amazed and humbled at the splendour of this world. And I can feel as much of a connection with the creator as I walk along in the frosty air, as I do in church on Sunday morning.