The Way - The Seasons
This is my favorite hiking trail in Autumn. It is the Redwing Trail at Rowe Woods and the mix of trees there at peak color is stunning. There’s a photo from several Octobers ago that continues to rotate as one of my computer backgrounds. The photo above is from just a few weeks ago on an absolutely beautiful beautiful morning. Below I’ll share another photo from that same hike.
This trail isn’t one of the ones that I often do at Rowe because it is the longest of their trails but also because it is the “squishiest.” Until they put in this raised boardwalk, this section especially was a rather dicey proposition because it was so swampy. Hiking it usually required a bath for Scout whenever we got home and a lot of work drying out my hiking shoes/boots. That being said, I usually tried to get at least one hike on Redwing every season because of how beautiful the trail is, especially this open meadow section.
But it is during Autumn when I am most reminded of the seasons in which we travel through our lives. There are the seasons of fullness and growth and ones that feel empty and dry and everything in between. The way of Jesus is so very similar. I used to believe that this Way was a steadily upward path where it was all about growth and getting closer to God. But that’s not the reality of this path. The Way of Jesus has times when we feel so very close to God and there are times that feel like God is far and distant. There are times when we feel we are growing and times when we feel stuck. The paths of our lives follow the pattern we see in Scripture and in nature of birth, life, death, resurrection, birth, life death, resurrection…But yet we continue to follow the path through all the seasons and changes of life.
I feel that this is why praying the labyrinth has become so dear to me. If you look at the image below of Lisa’s Labyrinth, you’ll see how the path (which btw never dead-ends) has points when we are close to the heart of the labyrinth and then also points when we are as far away as possible but still being on the path. The path twists, turns, and curves, but it continues until you reach the heart. And then this repeats as one walks out of the labyrinth.
Right now, I feel I am in a middle place. I don’t feel the closest as I have ever been but neither do I feel distant. But I’m still going along the path. Where do you find yourself?
Lovely dynamic photos! I remember when I was in middle school the trees were in glorious color always around my birthday in early October. Now we don't see them change much until 2-3 wks later. The length and severity of our seasons are changing as are my spiritual seasons. I don't pay that close attention to how close I feel to the Holy Spirit. However, the Holy Spirit more often reaches out to me in some remarkable way to let me know just how close to God I am. The veil between the human world and the God world is thin but tough with me. I just live my life and continue to thank God for all the small things in my life. If I see a coin on the sidewalk, I never pass over it. I bend over, pick it up, and put it in my pocket. It gives me a speck of stretching exercise and it also reminds me how important the little stuff is. Viewing a photo you took at some phase of your spiritual life is one of those little blessings.