Autumn has not always been one of my favorite seasons.
When I was a youngster, autumn meant school starting, and I was not a fan of school. I’d much rather be outside running with my dogs, or pretending to be a cow girl with my cousins, or contentedly playing at home with my mother.
Even as a teenager, school was not the best time of my life no matter how many people said it was.
I was a good enough student, but I was also very shy. The social aspect of high school just left me feeling left out.
The one thing about autumn I did like was shopping for school supplies. To this day, I can walk into an office supply store, catch the aroma of paper and pencils and feel happy.
But over the years I’ve fallen for fall and it’s colors and the closing down of the warm months of sowing and reaping. I am caught up in fall, the trees showing off the colors they’ve been hiding all summer. Gold, rust, crimson, burnt orange, and olive. Who but a marvelous Creator could bring one season to an end and another to a beginning with such flash and glory.
So with the prediction of high winds and possible tornado activity this week (in October?), I wondered if the colorful leaves would manage to stay on their branches or would they blow away too soon.
Those sudden gusts of wind, the storms of life, showing up unexpectedly and out of season, can leave me feeling bare, uncovered, blown and tossed about.
Such has been life and such it will be. One crises replaces another. Just when I can take a breath and enjoy the changing season, the breezes turn to gale force and knock me off my feet.
I watched my trees sway in the wind, branches loosing their grip on the leaves, What is left is a golden carpet on the ground. What made the tree beautiful had become beauty strewn all over the ground.
The Father wastes nothing.
No storm every comes my way without bringing His presence, teaching me to trust, reminding me of His faithfulness. In the storm, I learn endurance and patience. I find the peace-filled Prince in the middle of it. I learn that He brings beauty from the darkest night.
He makes all things beautiful in His time. As fall gives way to winter, I will hope in the Lord. I will wait for the promise of spring. And though it may be delayed, it will come. For He who promised is faithful and can be trusted.
Peggy's Journal 
As usual, I greatly enjoyed your thoughts; you have a special way of putting them together to bless your readers. Autumn is probably my favorite season – and a beautiful one! Again, thanks, Peggy!
Thank you, Sharon, for words of encouragement. Now we share our love for Autumn.
awesome writing as usual…need to keep it up…your words just flow…
the change of Seasons is bitter/sweet…but, I’ve got where I embrace what each brings to me…have a wonderful Thanksgiving Peggy…won’t be long…
Ah Marilyn, you are so faithfully encouraging to me. Blessings to you, friend. May we remember the gifts and acknowledge the Giver even more this Thanksgiving.
Thank you, Mrs. Peggy! Very true! Your statement about how our Father wastes nothing particularly resonated!
Thank you for reading, Tammy, and for affirming my words. Bless you.
Peggy, what you wrote was a beautiful thing to read this morning! It made me laugh when you mentioned the ‘aroma of paper and pencils’! I never thought about it that way, but I too, do that. I was in a store yesterday and this young girl (maybe about 11) saw books nearby and it was like there was a draw to her spirit as she moved away from her mom and sister towards them in awe, “Oooh, here are the books…” But what you said about the storms out of season and leaving you bare and uncovered, tossed and blown about is so very true. Yet we know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that God can be trusted. It is hard, in our flesh, to embrace the pain of those moments and therein lies a huge battle.
You have motivated me to start writing again on my own blog. My youngest son recently moved out. I decided I’m going to make his old bedroom my feminine office! lol We bought a desk from someone on Craigslist for it and I’m painting on Monday. Hopefully I will be moved into it by next weekend. I have been working at a pregnancy center in Rockford for about a year now. I have been trained for Post Abortion Syndrome healing. The Lord has laid it upon my heart to write a devotional for healing for women who have had abortions in their past from which most have kept hidden their grief. That is a tough subject for a first book and I am a little bit scared, but God seems to go right for the deepest pain in the heart when he is leading us on the path to heal his children. I have to go for now. I will talk to you soon and again, thanks for writing this post.
Teri, so good to hear from you. I love the idea of a feminine office. I am planning to partly retire sometime in January 2014 and I rearranged an upstairs area where I hope to write more regularly. Sometimes making the place for it attractive and inviting is incentive to go there, don’t you think? I like the sound of your devotional book, and it surely is needed for women who have experienced the trauma of abortion. I applaud your effort. I wish you well on your way. May the Lord use your words to bring healing and blessing. Thanks again for reading and commenting. It makes the whole blog-thing worthwhile.
May you be blessed of the Lord today. Peggy
> Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2013 14:13:59 +0000 > To: wright_peggy@hotmail.com >