Musings at Altitude

I’m sitting in my home office this morning with my pumpkin spice candles burning, the blinds wide open, and the sun peaking in and out of the early morning clouds that will soon burn off.  The outside temperature is a very brisk 39 degrees.  We changed the filters and turned the heater on for the first time late yesterday as the inside temperature approached 60.  We shut down the sprinkler system and drained the pipes just in case an unexpected freeze occurred last night, and we bought some pipe insulation to winterize the outside sprinkler pipes to hopefully avoid the “pipe burst” that has occurred the last two years when I’ve obviously drained the system wrong!

I’m looking at the trees around my house and I see the reds, the yellows, and the greens, and the beautiful mix of all three that will soon turn to brown leaves and then empty branches as winter approaches.  Here’s the view from my driveway:

As I look at the changes that are occurring so quickly outside, I’m reminded of a passage from Ecclesiastes Chapter 3:

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under heaven;

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

As I look outside and feel the briskness in this autumn air, it’s now time to break out the sweaters (I like the Mr. Rogers look) and prepare for that first autumn storm.  Eleven years ago, it snowed over 40 inches in a two day period in mid October.  We enjoyed that then (snow forts, family wars across the streets, schools and businesses closed, beautiful white landscape) and wouldn’t mind it now.  It’s also time for that special treat of a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks which will then be replaced by the gingerbread latte as Christmas approaches.  The decreasing temperatures and changing colors also brings the changing aisles in all  the major stores as the Halloween goods appear prominently by the entry ways, and the Christmas decorations appear down the side aisles (yep – already going up).  For those of us in snow country, we are already thinking about tires on our cars and either getting new tires to replace the balding old ones or replacing our “summer tires” with “winter tires”.  We’re just looking at having good tires with good tread, and we do need to replace some tires before this winter sets in.

As I sit here thinking about the changes taking place and enjoying the gentle scent of the pumpkin spice candles, I can’t help but think of how peaceful it is this morning.  We’ll soon be going to church and while there fill our spiritual reservoirs.  As I scan the landscape around my house and enjoy the changes occurring outside, I’m filling my emotional reservoir.  Later today, I hope to take a long walk and enjoy the autumn air and fill my physical reservoir.  I can’t help but think that God gave us this day of rest to do just this – to step back from the chaos and sometimes insanity of our typical daily activities and notice the changes and fill our reservoirs. 

For that, I thank God for meeting my needs.