thoughts on a rainy day

Days like today make me feel just a little more alive. All day it's been raining - sort of a sideways drizzle that beats down slowly, constantly with a gentle touch on your face like warm snow. The sky is a pale, luminous grey that seems to give more light to the day than a day with blue skies and a golden sun. Against the background of light, the tall green trees look greener and more full of life than before. It's one of those days when summer is easing gracefully into autumn. Some people huddle under their umbrellas with their jackets wrapped around them, frowning at the world, but it makes me want to lift my face to the sky and feel the raindrops on my eyelids. It's a day that makes me want to sing in the car, dance across the parking lot, and smile at everyone I see.

as summer fades to autumn

If winter is slumber and spring is birth, and summer is life, then autumn rounds out to be reflection. It's a time of year when the leaves are down and the harvest is in and the perennials are gone. Mother Earth just closed up the drapes on another year and it's time to reflect on what's come before. -Mitchell Burgess

Reflection. That really does seem to be what autumn is all about. When I picture autumn, my mind brings up a picture of a placid pond in the middle of a forest of crimson and golden leaves. When you look down into the pool of water, it's so smooth and glassy that you can see your face reflected in it as in a mirror, your head crowned by the slowly falling autumn leaves and surrounded by the blue September sky. And right now, amid all the craziness of school, church, friends, and the many things I'm doing, there's a peacefulness that allows my mind time to reflect "on what's come before."