October, I Love It!

October is the "narrow gate" month in the wall holding in the year. Through it the last vestiges of summer are unceremoniously ushered out. Through it we spy the forces of winter gathering in strength. There is a "pause in the middleness" about this tenth month that refreshes. Don't you love it?

We need to take stock periodically and October offers ample opportunities. Either we spent our summer as we had hoped or we didn't; either our gardens were the horticultural marvels we envisioned or they were not. Although we attended the requisite graduations, weddings, and reunions we may have missed a few. However it played out, it is over. Once again we move forward, strengthened with a new set of resolutions and plans.

Take heart — there is still time before we batten down the hatches, awhile before the holiday decorations go up. The trials and tribulations of our own school days are well behind us. We can pretty much learn at our own pace and what we choose to pursue. We watch instead the students of today trudging along weighted down with backpacks and soccer balls. They are fun to watch. These days for them, and for us, are precious and few. We enjoy them...so must they.

Although there are rare and perfect days in June, they pale beside the beauty of October at its best. There is so much of God in the grandeur and scope of it. Fewer leaves on the trees widen the horizons and draw our eyes to a sky bigger and bluer than ever. The scurry of summer is behind us and there is a simpler song in the cooler air. We know everything has a season: a time to harvest, a time to ease up, time for a sweater, time for apples, time for piles of leaves and bonfires. Don't you love it?

Photographers delight in October. Poets and artists are motivated by it. Storytellers weave tales of adventure and amour into happily ever after tapestries done in fall colors.

There are those who do not share my delight, who see October as dreary and dark. They, of course, have confused it with November, a month that can try the patience of poor souls and saints alike. November blows hither and yon with no apologies. When Thanksgiving Day comes we are grateful because month Number Eleven is over.

I have lived through many autumns and my memory, I admit, plays tricks on me sometimes... but not where October is concerned. In my mind, I see it always as vibrant. I see sun drenched days and starlit nights, washed sometimes with silver rain and buffeted with breezes that have real character. In its quiet times there is special serenity.

Is there a spiritual or inspirational message cleverly hidden in this essay somewhere? Perhaps not in these words. Listen to the whispers of October instead. Be watchful. Every year God blesses October anew. Stand by for the anointing.

Don't you love it?