October Musings – Awaken the Senses
Autumn invites a stunning change into virtually everything that has kept us busy over nine months of the year.
This is the season where the day begins with a crisp morning kiss and ends with the kept promise of a cooler sleepy night.
Wherever we travel, the landscape is alive with trees whimsically tinted in rich colors of red, green and yellow. These gentle giants made of wood humbly beckon our attention to notice the fiery colors rising from their dancing leaves.
Autum brings the extraordinary before everyone’s eyes.
What part of Autumn has captured your attention lately?
We need only to look and see, taking great care not to miss the unique gifts found only within Autumn’s divine basket. The works of an awesome God unfold in all its splendor only when we are fully present to behold Wonder. Progress through life’s razzle of responsibilities can certainly continue as we strive to breathe in the fragrance of Autumn’s spicy scent before it slips away.
The great mystics tell us that becoming fully present to the beauty of our natural world is a means to a spiritual ascent to God.
Even the angels, who when created, ascended to a magnificent knowledge of the Creator by contemplating in order the works of the six days (St. Augustine).
However, marveling at what the world feeds takes us to a different destination. It leads to the never-ending quest for wanting something more. The fruits of this realm will always leave us hungry.
Heavenly fruit fills the heart of God’s ordinary ones in a manner beyond what the world can ever hope to understand. Those walking in the Spirit can perceive the hand of the Divine Maker at work in creation that so many seem to miss. Too much noise and busyness stand in the way of the awarenes to stop, look up and see the majestic work within reach.
Christ tells us that his return will take place when the harvest of the earth is ripe. He says, “Do not say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest. Listen to my words: Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest.”
Ultimately, the taste of Autumn’s divine beauty cannot be savored in time sunk into whatever makes us scroll. It is found right there in the simple quiet moments that awaken our spirit with a power the world will never possess.
In the essay “The Autumn and the Fall of Leaves,” Belloc calls for a hearty look at the colors in just one leaf. He remarks that “the color is not mere splendor: it is intricate. And when leaves fall, they make a little sound, less than the least of sounds. Leaves are hardly heard, but they are heard just so much that human beings also, who are also destined at the end to grow glorious and to die, look up and hear them falling.”
A picture of a nearby tree
In stillness, we can hear the whispering of the leaves as they sway in Autumn’s breeze. The stark hue of red in the season’s apples spark something wonderful inside. Their rosy cheeks beg our eyes to notice their new crimson colored coat. They only ask for a moment of sweet attention before we take a bite.
In a quiet hush we can tune into the new sound crickets make as they say goodbye through their chirping—slowing the speed of their wings rubbing together as the weather gets colder. The tale in their song tells that winter is not that far away.
Yes, in the divinely ordinary, brought by the extraordinary Divine Maker – there is an abundance of glory waiting to be received.
The trees hear what nature is saying and do not resist the shedding of their leaves. We too can let go of all that is beyond our power to change. Walking present to several passages of Autumn’s beauty may be needed to heal the wounds. Even so, if it can be done in the few moments that come at the start of a new day, the serenity received will be no less lovely.
Celebrating autumnal beauty was the means to encounter divine joy for Victorian Era families. The very notion of taking time away from being present to such grand beauty to get more work done was considered absurd.
They would quite likely ask, “Has your mind gone a-wool-gathering?”
What’s more, the Harvest Festival (popularized by Rev. Robert Stephen Hawker around 1843) was a time to give thanks, reserved exclusively for the joy found in apple-bobbing, decorating homes with wheat sheaves, marveling at the season’s array of colorful fruits, and hand carving assorted faces into jack-o’-lanterns.
Harvest Festival | Seb Reilly
The object of their heart’s desire was to love the enchantment of Autumn itself.
Here are eight October musings to help brush your senses with Autumn’s Beauty:
Pick a book to serve as an inspirational companion to Autumn.
Anything by the Bronte Sisters (Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey). I just finished the Victorian thriller “The Moonstone” by Wilke Collins and loved it to the last page. So many twists and turns mixed with unexpected humor that made me burst out laughing!
Select a Psalm to read a hymn of praise. Commit a few words to memory. Whisper them softly on your nature walk.
Psalm 104
He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
He makes grass grow for the cattle
and plants for people to cultivate— bringing forth food from the earth.
Bring Autumn into your home with a movie set with an autumnal backdrop – The Young Sherlock on Prime Video
I am thoroughly enjoying new The Young Sherlock series. It brings a wonderful autumnal setting right into my home. The gothic, mysterious and classic world of Oxford University is perfect for this time of year.
Hear the Wisdom in the Saints of Autumn.
Pope Saint John Paul II famously used the season of autumn as a beautiful metaphor for aging and wisdom. He praised this stage of life as a rich, fruitful golden hour:
“The ‘autumn’ of life is a time of harvest, a time when the fruits of a lifetime can be gathered and offered to God and to those around us.”
Visit a farmers’ market for Autumn delights.
Bird watch (Listen to the different calls they make)
Journal about your time in nature.
Pray and give thanks for every blessing – including the tests.
God knows how to draw good from evil. And the good is all the greater in the measure that we diligently strive that He not be offended in anything.” ~St. Teresa of
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Indeed, let us see life as starting all over again when it gets crisp in the fall (F. Scott Fitzgerald).
May this season of Autumn fill your days with serenity.
