It is finally autumn

Actually, it has been for a while, but I have been too preoccupied to take it in. September is full of birthdays, followed by my own in early October; there was a wedding to attend, a long drive back, and another trip to South Carolina the following weekend. Add work days, some of them very long, and the sum is that I haven’t been home much in October.

But I finally saw autumn for the first time this year, aided by the wonderful-smelling Firehook chai I held in my hand as I walked – warm enough to take the edge off the heavy mist biting my face cold. The tree-lined avenue of old townhouses is punctuated by trees at various stages of fall colour, but a few maples stood out: their trunks wet and darkened by rain serving as a backdrop to make the golden leaves seem brighter. The leaves shone with an almost otherworldly radiance, as if they themselves were a source of light. Foliage of the sort you would expect to see in Narnia, not on C Street SE.

I thought of how the weather changed my weekend plans, but not all for ill. I began anticipating the apartment smelling of baking soda bread, pumpkin candles, and cider. (Autumn is a very olfactory season.) Since I was able to get a bunch of housework done during this week, I am also delighted by the prospect of time to read, perchance to nap, catch up on Fringe, and not leave the apartment save for ESOL...

But for now, that is the stuff of the future. Back at my desk, I delight in the five little inches of outside I can see from my desk – an aspen slowly turning to yellow, constantly moving in the wind that is synonymous with fall in D.C. And for a moment, the questions and desires and hopes and fears that have been crowding my mind are silenced by the beauty of God’s creation, which declares His glory – and sovereignty – even in its fallen state.