This is a poem/meditation that I wrote for Harvest and presented in Church. I hoped to combine my love of the changing seasons and the sense of the sacred, along with my understanding that it is Christ Himself who lives and breathes in the beauty that we experience and are part of, whether we notice this or not. Christ comes to us in the simple and the ordinary both from within His Creation and beyond through His great redemptive work.
The Turning Year
October
‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’
Let us consider the beauty and gifts of the changing season. The first frosts turning the leaves golden,red and yellow.
The smell of leaf mold in the air, strange shaped fungus in the damp woods.
November
Scrunching leaves to kick through, remembered from childhood - still available to us today.
The smell of bonfires.
The falling of leaves across the sky.
The bare branches of trees revealed again.
December
Short days and long nights,
The point of Midwinter.
Mistletoe, holly, and perhaps a flurry of snow.
Christmas - that great celebration of the return of the Light,
A baby born, new life in the middle of what seems like death.
January
Ice on puddles,
Deep hard frost bejeweling every stem and twig.
Sub-zero,
A long wait for Spring.
February
Snow,
Deep, crisp, silent, white, crunch.
The possibility of a snowball,
Snowman.
Memories, children’s laughter,
Sledging.
Snowdrops and the first crocus peeping through.
March
Bird song and the building of nests.
Lambs bleating, frisking in the fields.
The return of hopeful sunshine,
Days lengthening.
April
Gentle rain,
Daffodils, primroses,
An increasing burst of life.
May
A riot of colour, shapes and fragrances,
Hedges covered in white blossom.
June
Days lengthening to a mid-point,
Roses.
The feel of real warmth in the air.
Fields of green wheat moving towards ripeness.
July
Summer blending one day with another.
The smell of cut grass,
The smell of new mown hay,
Memories, hay carts,
The beginning of harvest.
August
Stubble in the fields,
Blackberries, red berries and hops in the hedgerow.
Home grown tomatoes.
A dusty, mellow warmth.
September
Tell tale spiders webs covered in dew that let us know that the season is changing and autumn returns.
We welcome the abundance of fruit and berries, looking forward to harvest.
The year has turned, we have come full circle. We are one year older, we are aware of changes within our lives.
We breathe deeply and accept life’s natural patterns, thanking God that in Christ we have access to the still point,the key, the corner stone, the very fountain and foundation of life. Jesus, the Alpha, the Omega, through whom we are made, to whom we return, through whom all creation finds fulfillment.
Praise God for this great mystery.
Amen.