Transitions

Not always easy to navigate but if I look close enough, there is beauty in the process.

Transitions.

Summer's Light is Still On

Though only a few days left in August, summer continues by way of weather and calendar both. I am very aware that soon we'll turn the page on the calendar and fall will quickly advance. Talking with some friends, I understand I am not alone in finding challenges transitioning to autumn. To be sure, there is beauty in fall's canvas, winter's and spring's too for that matter, and I will enjoy their beauty when it comes. But for this heat-loving gal, there is a greater sadness in this season's departure than any other.

For today, summer's light is still on.

In shorts and flip flops,
Carla

Words Without Pictures

I've spent a lot of time thinking about spring and the new life it brings. It can be exciting and so full of amazing changes. But last Sunday, my thoughts shifted to the season of summer as a guest speaker spoke at our church.

Aaron Wiebe talked about summer being a foretaste of heaven. A summertime of the heart can be the opposite of winter when God may feel remote, distant. Summer is a time of abundance and fruitfulness.

Aaron encouraged us to revel in summer (enjoy, play, rest), water in summer (water our souls, leave water footprints wherever we go), gather in summer (what God gives, give back - be expectant to both give and receive that which is precious) and finally, prune in summer (don't mistake leafiness for fruitfulness).

I came away feeling sun-kissed and Son-kissed, both. I was encouraged and filled with hope, inspired to go through this coming season of summer in a new way, starting right now.

For your amusement I scanned my notes from Sunday and will include them below (it's not really a picture so I'll keep my post title). To most, this will make no sense - it is jibberish, but I am a visual and creative learner. Learning in church doesn't stop that. (To my embarrassment I see that I misspelled 'foretaste'...oh well...)

Spring

Emerging from the cold and sometimes dark season of winter, spring waits on my doorstep. I've long thought that our seasons are quite distinct but I am beginning to learn that each of the seasons flow into another, sometimes with overlap and mingling lasting longer than a short while.

Today the snow is falling pretty heavy. We're not yet at spring but it is close. I certainly have the welcome mat out on my step. Inside I have a pot of beautiful tulips, given to me by a dear friend. I look at the tulips and see new life and hope...springtime.

Winter Caught in Summer

The snow looks like cotton tufts, caught in between and around the green blades, like winter getting caught in summer.

The mix of two seasons is always so interesting to me. Capturing their intertwining is a great deal of fun.

True Colours

Today feels like autumn, as I guess it should, seeing as it has been autumn for weeks now. Here in the prairies we've been blessed with above normal temperatures for the summer and well into these first weeks of fall. Only now are we beginning to feel the chill in the air. I thought it would all seem so sudden, once autumn really showed her true colours, but it doesn't feel sudden at all. It just feels normal, like it is simply time to get on with the season we are in.

Happy Autumn.