Whatever our Spiritual or Religious Paths, I feel we all experience some effect upon our inner-being during the onset of full-blown Autumn. Perchance, you are like me, and this month of October generates within you a deeper, more 'close to the surface of consciousness', realization of the cycle of Birth, Death, and Re-Birth.

Having lived as a child in a rural Midwestern area, I grew up with Nature teaching me Her lessons. Winter was a dark time, cold...cold air, cold earth, cold light from what seemed a cold sun. Often winter was bitter cold, and the farm, my world, would lie blanketed in snow so deep, I as a small child, could barely make my way from the back door of our house to the nearby tool shed to visit my cats.

Then, Nature showed me Spring, with the earth bursting with new Life! This time of year was always a busy one for my mother, for Spring was also the time when most of our farm animals bore their young. The thrill I experienced, seated cross-legged upon the straw covered, barn stall floor, and gently stroking a newborn calf, lives yet with me. The whinny of a newborn foal, the discovery in that old tool shed, of a litter of kittens, tiny, eyes not yet open, mother cat watching my every move, such wonders to my child's heart. The vivd colors of Spring, the deepening green of the yards and fields and the budding trees, the early Spring flowers delighting my sight, and oh! the heady fragrance of purple lilac after a Spring shower!

Nature then showed me Summer, the full burst of all that is good! Sweet, sun drenched days, bounty from my mother's garden, bounty I had watched sprout, and grow to maturity, and nights when I fell asleep to the chorus of singing insects. Glorious, strong, beautiful Summer!

Autumn-Nature took me by the hand and showed me the decline of all of Summer's joyful exuberance. It was ever October when Nature made a point of gaining my full attention. Partly I think, because of the sight of fields now harvested, bare, stubbled, the leaves of the trees turning color, drying, falling, and a chill in the October air, even when the sun shone so very brightly in the sky. One late October day, when very small, I felt great sadness at the bare, dry, stalks and litter of what had once been a little flower garden that had delighted me all during the Summer. My mother had consoled me, telling me not to feel sad, the flowers would be merely sleeping awhile. They would sleep all winter, but they'd be back come Spring. 'Just wait until Winter passes, you'll see,' she told me. And I knew she was right, for I had seen all about me, that which Winter had proclaimed to my childish supposition, dead, come again to Life, the past Spring. I have loved Autumn since that day.

Halloween Night, October 31st. Samhain, a Celebration, in the Celtic tradition, of the night when the Old Growing Year passes away, and the veil between Worlds is thin. I view it as a night of reflection, of taking time to seriously realize my Life, as Nature taught. I am now, in the Autumn of my time on earth.

I have been enjoying our beautiful, cooler weather here in the Atlanta area, and as usual, in October, I have grown more introspective. On Halloween Night, I shall enjoy the Trick-or-Treaters who come to call, and later, I will think upon my women ancestors, seeking of them strength, wisdom, and courage, to face the coming Winter of my Life. I shall seek not in sadness, but with the thought of my mother's words in mind,

'Just wait until Winter passes, you'll see.'

For All My Sisters here, an Autumnal Offering:

'Now that she is middle-aged, my wife
likes to stand before the window
and comb her hair

Her only makeup a trace of cloud
the landscape of a graceful
poised maturity'
---William Marr, Autumn Window

---Jeannine Schenewerk

In Touch With Jeannine