One of my favorite things about living in the Pacific Northwest is the beauty of each season we experience. Here we live them in living color. Summer has come to an end and the brilliance of a summer sun─has gracefully taken its place backstage. In its place the warmth of an Autumn sun takes center stage.
Morning air is now brisk and the ground covered with fresh dew each morning. Autumn sunshine warms the air and reflects a myriad of colorful foliage. Trees and plants prepare for their season of dormancy. Leaves fall and blanket the ground, plants are cut back in an effort to produce in the coming spring. Bulbs and tubers of various kinds are dug up and carefully stored away from the winter freeze.
Today, I find myself in a new season of life as well. I’ve lived through many summers and welcomed the move into a slower pace fall offers. This year I’ll welcome this new season in a fresh new way. I’ll embrace it in me and around me.
I’ll learn to find the beauty, that I find hard to unearth; in the quite of a house once filled with children and their children. I’ll trust eternal love to protect dormant places in my heart─meant to rest until their time. I’ll open my arms wide open to pruning that produces life.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers. Psalm 1:3
There is beauty in every season and I’ll embrace the journey. I’ll breathe in deeply His fragrant grace. I’ll lay a path carved out with words of gratitude and seek to step in sync with the One who loves my soul.
Yes, “the empty nest” syndrome, as it is called isn’t a pleasant thing for me. I’m not fond of it. I will, however joyfully embrace this new season with a heart filled with hope!
“And when I give thanks for the seemingly microscopic, I make a place for God to grow within me.” Ann Voskamp
Tami Yeager 