Image: George Mendoza
Good morning, good God!
A friend reminds me
it’s only early spring "down under"
- but of course, you know that, Lord!
Still, on this side of the equator
the sun sets a little earlier each evening
and Labor Day's approach
begins to eclipse these august days…
So, I'm wondering, Lord:
why must good times come to an end?
The good times sometimes come too seldom -
and then, they’re gone...
And as wonderful as memories are,
they are, well, memories...
Why, Lord, must the good days come to an end?
Why are memories not enough?
Why does the fall-filtered beauty of light and leaves
seem not enough to let me let go
summer’s warmth and pace and peace?
Of seasons there are four...
but yet a hundred seasons more,
in my life alone, Lord:
seasons of presence, seasons of pain;
seasons of sadness, seasons of gain;
seasons of sunlight, seasons of rain;
seasons of comfort, seasons of strain;
seasons of planting, seasons of grain;
seasons of waiting and waiting for seasons
to break the seasons’ chain…
So many seasons, Lord…
And letting go of summer is not easy…
I should be grateful for autumn:
your gentle preparation
of everyone and everything
for the dying winter will surely bring…
Still, letting go of summer is not easy...
You know the seasons better than I, Lord,
and no season changes
'round me or in me
but that you know first
how the changes
will change me...
Be with me, Lord,
in all the seasons of my life
and be with me in between the seasons,
when moving from one to the next
is a season of its own...
I offer you my heart this Monday morning, Lord,
and every morning this week
edging me to Labor Day
and the end and the beginning
of so many, many things…
Help me let go of what is slipping away...
Take my offered heart
and open me to what is new and changing
in the weeks and months ahead…
You are the source of all seasons, Lord,
and of the strength I need
to live in them and through them...
Be my guide and walk with me
through this day, this week,
through this summer-fall season’s changes…
Amen.
(For an archive of previous Monday Morning Offerings,
check here or click on the coffee cup at the top of the sidebar...)
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I am a fairly new follower of your blog...I came upon your site when looking for a prayer to put in my granddaughter's lunch box the first day back to school. There you were! I have been following since!
ReplyDeleteToday's post came at a time when I am trying very hard to come out of a year and a half of saddness, joy, struggles and praying to our Lord for me to find "my happy" again. My father, who I considered a true humble man of God, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in April 2009 with mets throughout his skeleton. Because I had been displaced from work (RN) I spent most of Spring and Summer caring for him. I went back in the Fall to care for him when he was dying and he died late October during harvest time. Dad was a farmer with a quiet faith that was ever present. You write of the changing seasons, the memories...not only of the seasons of nature but of our lives. I found comfort, strength and love in what you have written. I have always said that God puts us where and when we are needed. Thank you so very much! Terry
Terry: Thank you for sharing a piece of your spiritual journey with all of us. Responses like yours, letting me know that this venture has touched a reader's heart and prayer, make all the work worthwhile. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
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