To every thing there is a season......

Let me go on record. I am NOT a 'Fall' person. I am a summer person. I go into October quietly - and not so quietly sometimes - inwardly kicking and screaming. It is painful to give up the warmth and the light and the comfort of late August/early September summer. It is dark getting up and dark coming home from work. Ugh.

Here on the east coast we are not getting the spectacular foliage we had become accustomed to. The leaves - at first due to drought - drained from green to funky yellow, faded and fell. Last week - due to the torrential rains - they came pounding down still attached to tree limbs, a sad shadow of what they had been. With the passing days the trees become more bare, increasingly spare, naked and humbled by the passing of time and seasons.

Coming into my mid-years I reluctantly look to nature for a disarming reality and realize God had something up the proverbial sleeve with the seasons concept. There is an ebb and flow to things on a colossal and microscopic level. There is a beginning, middle and end. And, born through Baptism in Christ we believe we will be transformed again to a new beginning.

Facing this ultimate [duh!] reality doesn't come easily to most of us. If it did and we were more spiritually evolved people, "cosmetic" surgery would be an anomaly rather than pedestrian. It is uncomfortable, annoying, frustrating and sometimes depressing growing old, living with some of the business that comes with a body that reflects the passage of time with candid gravity. That which once was up has, somehow over the years, slowly slid down. Hu-rumph.

The single handle I have in this season of loss is on the horizon... advent. Something, someone is coming. Watch carefully for the light in the darkness. Not the same kind of darkness from the tomb to the Resurrection; a different kind of light altogether... a longing light, an expectant light, a yearning light.

Hope. Hope in the darkness. Hope for love, for belonging, for victory against all odds. It is coming, it will come, He will come. Watch, wait, hope.

Pass along- the Five Finger prayer

I'm still pulling things out of my archives and it's taking longer than expected. I was also under the weather today.

Below is a pass along from Ms. Hodgepodge, Debbie Sharp- she got this as an e-mail. No, this isn't about wishing to punch anyone out.... and it may be a visual aid for remembering those to pray for. Go in peace to love and Serve the Lord!

"I had never heard this before...This is beautiful - and it is surely worth making the 5 finger prayer a part of our lives.

1. Your thumb is nearest you. So begin your prayers by praying for those closest to you. They are the easiest to remember. To pray for our loved ones is, as C. S. Lewis once said, a "sweet duty."

2. The next finger is the pointing finger. Pray for those who teach, instruct and heal. This includes teachers, doctors, and ministers. They need support and wisdom in pointing others in the right direction. Keep them in your prayers.

3. The next finger is the tallest finger. It reminds us of our leaders. Pray for the president, leaders in business and industry, and administrators. These people shape our nation and guide public opinion. They need God's guidance.

4. The fourth finger is our ring finger. Surprising to many is the fact that this is our weakest finger; as any piano teacher will testify. It should remind us to pray for those who are weak, in trouble or in pain. They need your prayers day and night. You cannot pray too much for them.

5. And lastly comes our little finger; the smallest finger of all which is where we should place ourselves in relation to God and others. As the Bible says, "The least shall be the greatest among you." Your pinkie should remind you to pray for yourself. By the time you have prayed for the other four groups, your own needs will be put into proper perspective and you will be able to pray for yourself more effectively. "