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Autumn
I love autumn. It's still warm enough outside to golf... the leaves are pretty... it's still flip flop season. Autumn is a paradox within itself, though. We see the leaves eventually turning brown and dropping to the ground.. dying. As those leaves and other "things" from the tree fall though, we are reminded that seeds are being planted for the next spring. On the surface, we have this sad picture of foliage but what is really happening is the embedding of seeds for new growth. "How shall we understand autumn's testimony that death and elegance go hand in hand?" (99). Palmer explains that in a paradox, the two things do not cancel each other out, but rather "cohere in mysterious unity at the heart of reality" (99). They need each other.... just as we need life to understand death, and death to understand life. Autumn embodies wholeness.
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Winter
I'm not a fan of winter... I suppose I am really just not a fan of winter in the midwest. I like having distinct seasons. I just don't like the long drawn out snowy nights when it gets dark at 4pm. You have those days when you just feel too cold to function and your car won't start because it is just that cold. It's depressing. "The winters will drive you crazy until you learn to get out into them" (102). Palmer relates this (which he heard from a friend living in the upper midwest US) to vocation.... The fear and sadness that exists will overtake us if we don't address it. Remember, we can't BE the fear that holds us... we must replace that with the trust... faith ... and hope that is embodied in spring!
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Spring
This is probably my favorite season. It isn't too hot-- I can still play golf and go running without getting heat stroke-- and the flowers and trees are freshly blooming. It's gorgeous. The rain that comes, while I don't like it all the time, brings a nice, real green-ness to the grass... something no other season really provides. Palmer relates the word 'humus' (decayed vegetable matter that feeds plants) comes from the same root for 'humility.' "It helps me understand that the humiliating events of life, the events that leave 'mud on my face' or that 'make my name mud,' may create the fertile soil in which something new can grow" (103). So often we get caught up in the ugliness of life... and as the Rev. Emily Joye McGaughy has said, "There's no getting out of the mess if you want a meaningful life." We have to make it through winter to see spring... We have to understand that life is not always full of new growth. Sometimes things have to die in order for something to grow.
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Summer
Summer is just plain fun. There's always fun things going on, relaxation happening, and late night basketball games when it's light at 9:30pm. Palmer says, "Where I live, summer's keynote is abundance" (106). We are always in an ebb and flow process... sometimes we have produced an abundance. Other times we find life scarce. But, typically nature takes care of us with a good balance of both. When it comes to humanity (not agriculture) we have to create an abundance. "It is created when we have the sense to choose community, to come together to celebrate and share our common store" (107). Finding a sense of community creates an abundance of the non-tangible, and even some of the tangible. Not only are we able to give when others are in need, but we build that kind of place where people are comfortable enough to be vulnerable to receive what they need as well. "Community is abundance." We function on behalf of the whole, on behalf of each other and from that we are transformed. We must accept the abundant grace that comes with our common life together.
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We are constantly evolving, changing and transforming. We are living through the good fridays and winters so we can experience the easters and summers to their fullest.
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Be in community. Be transformed.
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Stay tuned for the next book based blog.
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