Autumn has a way of stealthily creeping up on me. Its silent footsteps can only be perceived in the turning leaves. Its presence is subtly detected as its chilled breath mingles with the mild zephyrs of summer; not quite wintery, still possessing a hint of green warmth. I recognize its entrance gradually, until it comes upon the world around me in full, vibrant force. And I know that it will suddenly, quite complacently, succumb to the frosted grasp of winter’s hand, bending to the white and grey until no trace of golden autumn remains.
This romantic, sensuous, somewhat foreboding picture hails the opening of a new chapter, the turning over of a new leaf (pun intended). Summer was a short, flushed whirlwind of work, rest, fellowship, healing, pondering, wandering, wondering. Without much warning, it has quickly given way to the focused, refreshing blast of fall, both in the natural changes outside and circumstantial changes of a new academic year.
As fall comes and goes, without asking anyone’s permission, I find it is always accompanied by a downpour of “the new”. Not just a new school year, a new season, a new stack of textbooks. New life, new heartache, new challenges, new responsibilities, new relationships, new trepidations, new expectations. Just, well, new about many things. It is exciting, overwhelming, scary, unsettling, delightful, sobering.
And here, at the threshold of this fifth chapter of my university career, I find myself reeling at the tidal wave of changes and newishness before me. It has not knocked the breath out of me just yet, but I know it very well could. I am not immune to the over-busyness that characterizes so many students’ lives.
But as a wise person once told me: when life gets busy, God always gives an extra measure of grace.
Although it will feel — and perhaps already feels — like I am drinking from a fire hose, I simultaneously stand under a waterfall of grace to cover, carry, bear up, overshadow, and shelter me through this next year.
The season changes. And the grace just keeps coming.
songs of stippled stardust 
beautifully written words! 💞
LikeLike