Dear Folks,
As I write this letter today, it seems each time I look up from my computer keys, I see more color on the hardwood trees. It is October and the leaves are bright, colorful, clownish, as they lift away from old dried stems, to take whimsical free fall flights. I see them spin, drift, skip, whirl. Not only have a few decided our front deck a fine resting place, others have scurried into our entrance hall and living room, where I find them curled beside the “claw footed feet” of various Victorian era family heirlooms. I’m waiting the day I discover one or two on top the white and black piano keys, playing “Autumn Leaves” perhaps.
Okay, the pastor’s gone silly, but warm, glorious October days do bring out the poet in me. The beginning of October: “All things Bright and Beautiful.” The end of October, at least here in Maine, the hardwood trees are stark as those many skeletons we encounter ( fortunately only dressed in costumes on October 31 carrying their goody bags and calling out “Trick or Treat”). At the end of October the tunes that we begin humming have lyrics like “In The Bleak Midwinter.”
But not yet!
Not yet!
Let us all enjoy the many charms, warmth and beauty of October. Let us enjoy the amazing gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives as late morning and afternoon blue skies are a darker blue than any we can squeeze from oil paint tubes, sunset light on rust red blueberry barrens, mild breezes, black star startling skies. Everywhere change in a “hist whist” fashion (to quote e.e. cummings). And yes, again, the Holy Spirit working in our lives. Let us never doubt it. I want to end with Prayer # 329 found in the UMC (red hymnal) “Prayer to the Holy Spirit,” a prayer that seems fitting to be read in October.
O Great Spirit
whose breath gives life to the world
and whose voice is heard in the soft breeze:
We need your strength and wisdom.
Cause us to walk in beauty. Give us eyes
ever to behold the red and purple sunset.
Make us wise so that we may understand
what you have taught us.
Help is learn the lessons you have hidden
in every leaf and rock.
Make us always ready to come to you
with clean hands and steady eyes,
so when life fades, like the fading sunset,
our spirits may come to you without shame. Amen.
Enjoy October. Be kind to those who are hurting. Be wise to the cries of the needy. Allow the Holy Spirit to fill your life, so that like the leaf, you may free fall on the wondrous spiritual journey that God has so planned for you.
I’ll “chat” with you come November. And/or if you’d like to talk sooner, remember Sundays at 11:00, Monday nights at 6:30 or call me any time to set an appointment for conversations over tea, coffee, some place looking into nature’s beauty or where music is playing.
Peace be with you!
Pastor Susan Yaruta-Young
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