Experiencing the November Forest

Dear Friends,
        Take three strides
        into the November forest.
        Then take three more.
                Stand still.
                Listen. Look around.
                The wind tumbles the wet leaves
                across the rutted, stone-strewn floor of the woods.
                Water-soaked, they settle into valleys
                and pile into fox holes and rabbit holes, gopher holes and the like,
                to protect the life sheltered within.
        Through the winter, the leaves will blanket and nourish the land,
        hold close the roots and self-giving plants
        taking their refuge,
        worn out from producing whatever
        they had been called to by our Creator God.
                Spring will find them
                reinvigorated or
                dead, replaced by a new batch of holy growth.
        But till then,
        in our wondrous north,
        the snow will help –
        warming when possible –
        freezing when necessary –
        hallowing all the land holds dear.
                Beyond the November forest
                stretch yards and gardens,
                crevices in the stone hedges,
                living out the same cycle of rest and revitalization.
        Don’t we do that?
        Don’t we have times of high energy and output,
        then little or none.
                We are a November people, although not sure we relish this time
                when we are like trees without leaves or camped out in forest stillness.
        Today,
        pause to experience November.

                Trust our Ecologist God
                who valued all growing things
                long before we knew how.
                Step off the path
                into the welcoming woods.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

(Photo Courtesy of Mary Lou Wenthe)