The mornings are darker now, the moon giving of what light there is, and the nights are cooler now, nice for sleeping with windows open. Now we see mums and pumpkins for sale, the summer flowers all gone. But, of course, it’s still summer, the temperature sill creeping up into the 80s from time to time. Some of the maples are starting to turn.
We’re told seasonal change affects us in many ways. We feel better in the spring, in spite of response to pollen, and theoretically we feel sadder in the fall as the days shorten. However, as the mornings are cooler, I would argue that late summer/early fall weather makes us feel better because the lethargy of hot summers is gone.
Now, the sun is making it over the horizon, and the day is really dawning. Birds fussing at the feeders and the blue jays dive bombing for the dry cat food on the deck –It makes you not want to look at the news of the day but just to take a day off from the world and be thankful to God for the day.
Prayer for the Day
When do we feel the change in the seasons, O God?
Is it with the dry cool mornings as the dew wets the grass?
The moon fast disappearing in the East, O Lord,
As daybreak comes later and later?
Grace us, O Holy One, so we feel the day you created,
Making us be in awe of the wonder we experience.
In the name of the One who is the instrument of your grace,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
It is the glistening autumnal side of summer. I feel a cool vein in the breeze, which braces my thought, and I pass with pleasure over sheltered and sunny portions of the sand where the summer's heat is undiminished, and I realize what a friend I am losing.
Henry David Thoreau, American essayist (1817-1862)
With all these lovely tokens of September days are here, with summers best of weather and the autumns best of cheer.”
Helen Hunt Jackson, American writer, activist for Native Americans (1830-1885)
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
To declare oour steadfast love in the morning, and our faithfulness by night,
To the music of the lute and the hap, to the melody of the lyre.
For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;
At the works of your hand, I sing for joy.
Psalm 92: 1-4