Autumn feels different depending on which cycle you respond to most strongly.  Underneath, we are all still tied to the land, metaphorical farmers if not literal ones.  Autumn means harvest, a time of in-gathering.  But overlaid on that ancient cycle is the modern one of education, in which autumn means the beginning of a new school year.  For years, it was the best time: a “new beginning… with no mistakes yet!”  Then inevitably we left school and became subject to the cycle of that arbitrary task master, the calendar.  Now autumn is the time of preparation for the new year, of budgets and balances, of stewardship and goal-setting. And of course, what do we tie stewardship to?  The abundance of the harvest… and we’re back where we started.  Which cycle do you feel part of as the days grow shorter and the yellow leaves stand out against the blue sky?

Nature's Harsh Harmony

Contemplate all nature’s beauty And embrace its darker side; Life as sacrifice is ordered; Sometimes life will be denied; Celebrate with adoration New growth after seeds have died.

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Autumn Prayer

O Dear One, we strain forward to meet you now in the silence of prayer; we press ahead, reaching for you, and as we do we notice those things that create the tension we feel between us and you.

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Celebrate the Earth Alive! Religious Naturalism in Ritual, Festivals, and Celebrations…

Religious Naturalism (RN) has two central aspects. One is a naturalist view of how things happen in the world—in which the natural world is all there is, and that nothing other than natural may cause events in the world. From nature we came, in nature we are, to nature we go… The other is appreciation of religion with a view that nature can be a focus of religious attention - the ‘cosmic religious feeling’ as Einstein called it.

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