The beginning of September is an intense time for those of us who work in churches. It's a time for finding out things that have happened in the families of the congregation since June, a time for getting things started in all kinds of church programs, and a time for special celebration. It's exciting and exhausting. This year we added to the madness by hiring a new Director of Religious Education at the very last minute, doing interviews on Labor Day weekend, getting an agreement by the end of that first week, and spending a whirlwind week getting the program started for real. I arrive at this moment like a person washed up on the shore after flailing downstream through white water rapids, grateful, a little surprised, and somewhat disoriented.
I missed out on an ordination I wanted to attend, partly because my car had a mystery with a dashboard light that might be telling me something is wrong. But actually, the car is just reflecting my body and spirit, flashing a warning light that something might be overheating. It was telling me that if I didn't drive far out of town, then if the overheating occurred, I'd be close enough to home to be towed. I felt that way personally, as well.
The mechanic found a simple solution to the flashing light on the car. In the meantime, I attended to my own personal flashing dashboard light, using the time I would have taken for my colleague's rite of passage to mark my own passage from the time of beginnings -- the first two weeks of September -- to the "regular" fall season.
On Labor Day weekend, a small group gathered on Sunday morning to mark the end of the summer season. Two full-sized services later, the shock of seeing "everybody" is wearing off. Two weeks ago the green of the trees was just thinning out toward yellow and red. Now we start seeing real color. The autumn equinox arrives this weekend. A touch of fall is in the air, mixed with the still-warm breath of summer. Time to be with the fading light, the rising colors, the falling temperatures, and the rhythm of daily living.
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All week I have noted the crispness in the overnight weather. Then, this morning, I saw one tree in full orange amongst the greenery on my way to work. Then, I knew that summer was REALLY over.
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