Photo by Angela Kellogg
Thank God for fall –
The time for letting go
Of all for which the sowing work was done,
The labor in the sun,
The watering and weeding,
The nurture of the seedling,
And praying for the rain,
Through all the spring and summer.
The hope that made the waiting
Worth the wait
Has been anticipating
This fine day
When seedlings stood up strong
On stalks that bore the weight
Of lovely buds and blossoms
Of their own.
And all along we knew
There’d be a separating,
A time when roots reached deep
Into the soil
To nurture what we’d planted.
The labor and the toil –
That happiest of work –
Would be much less demanding,
And there’d be time for standing
In the sunset
Hand in hand.
Photo by Suzanne Jennings
So, here it is, the fall,
The time for separating;
Yet, nothing’s lost at all,
And nothing disappears
This harvest time of year;
And, yes, there’s time
For savoring the joy,
For storing in the heart
And filling up the soul’s wide granaries
With what has grown to be,
The fruit of finest dreams.
Photo by Angela Kellogg
We sift the kernels through our hands
And sing
To find them pregnant with the spring!
--Gloria Gaither from HANDS ACROSS THE SEASONGS
