There is something comforting about fall. It’s more than the aroma of pumpkin and spices or pulling out cozy blankets and sweaters. There’s something in the air. You can see it in foliage ablaze with red, yellow, purple, and bronze. You can hear it with leaves crunching below your feet. You can feel it as the wind blows out the bright days of summer and makes way for the quiet calm of winter.
Autumn can prompt us to turn inward and recognize the reality of our lives. I find that comforting. It’s easy to notice the splendor of the dawn or the drama of the sun setting but there is also something amazing happening throughout the day. Autumn can awaken us to the grace of the in-between time and encourage us to be thankful. It’s in the in-between time that we sprout and grow as well as release and rejuvenate.
Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” This time of year we can see the bounty of the harvest of our lives as well as the barrenness left behind after loss. I find comfort in embracing the complexity of life. It is comforting to remember that it is natural for things to change. It’s comforting to remember there is a time to come alive with possibility and a time to surrender and let go. There will be times when we are brimming with joy and times when we are struggling and stalled. Like the trees shedding their leaves, we can release our cares, our worries and those parts of ourselves that no longer hold life. When we do, we are reminded of what is essential. We can rediscover a hidden presence of beauty and strength in what remains. We are enough. We have enough. We are blessed.
Do you know what it means to be blessed? In both Hebrew and Greek, the word blessed can mean deep satisfaction. This fall, we can be blessed. We can grow in contentment by paying attention to where we are and what we have. That’s comforting.