What do you think of when you think of fall?
Is it Instagram-worth photos of coffees in fall-colored foliage? Is it wrapped in a cardigan listening to Taylor Swift’s Sad Autumn Girl version of All Is Well, maybe with a cup of pumpkin spice latte? Or perhaps, you like to queue up Gilmore Girls and hear everyone’s favorite highly caffeinated, fast-talking mother-daughter pair in Star Hollow.
Fall also means change.
The weather drops degrees (okay, maybe it’s in the upper 80s, lower 90s, but I’ll take it) and the leaves changed colors. Neighbors put up fall decorations with fall wreaths, pumpkins, cornucopias, and for the Halloween fans – ghosts and black cats may grace the patio. Even big box stores begin to change, Halloween and fall decorations become front and center with signs and sales urging people to buy.
I love fall.
For me, fall tells me that the climax is happening. That everything we have done or working towards has been building up to something grand. Okay, so what is a climax? What is this crazy girl even talking about? Let’s back up, I’m a self-proclaimed bookworm with several work-in-progresses because she keeps coming up with new novel ideas.
Do you remember in high school English classes that story plot diagram? The one with a peak in the middle? It tells how every story works. It begins with the exposition, the groundworks of story and the who’s who, and then the rising action going up and up to the climax, where the action takes place. Then the story tumbles down into the falling action, the aftermath of the climax, and evens out into the resolutions, the ending.
A favorite fall memory I have is seeing my grandmother at Thanksgiving. She was an artist and all year long, she would be crafting and making art. She could make the most beautiful ornaments and could thread a needle at 91 years old. I am 29 and I struggle with threading needles. I would show up to her house, give her a hug, and immediately be given a tour to see what crafts she had done that year. She would show me everything from the pumpkins she had thrifted and how she turned them into “fancy pumpkins” to her non-Christmasy ornaments to the wreath on her front door to whatever new craft she was currently working on. I never could pick a favorite and I still can’t.
My grandmother spent the whole year crafting and at the end of the year, people saw them displayed. Her house would change with the seasons, but in an odd way, everything stayed the same.
As I thought of what to write, I wrote a poem about my grandparents and the changes of seasons. I wrote how the season and everything is changing. But not them. I wrote how I wish things could go back in time, that I could revisit a moment, a conversation, a memory one last time. Have you ever felt that way before? But at the end of poem, I shared how although they are unchanging, it means that their impact and influence is unchanging in my life. Which was beautiful for me and that’s fall.
I hope that as the leaves change, as your coffee order changes, as your fashion changes, as your television shows change, you will feel like you have not changed. That you will still look up and notice the constants in your life. The physical ones – Maybe it’s a grandparent or a close friend who welcome you each and every day with a warm smile. And the most important constant of all – God.
Because God is with you and he’s not against you. As fall comes upon us, I pray you take time to rest and truly live out Isaiah 40:31. Life is crazy, life is forever changing, but God does not change. We can rest in Him, He will renew our strength, and you will not faint nor be weary with God.
but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
What are your favorite fall activities?
Elizabeth