In a few weeks, Marlene and I will take what has become our annual Fall vacation.  The image above is from our trip last year as we explored some of our favorite parts of the Southwest US.  We had visited these places before, but this was the first time we saw some of them in Autumn.  It made for a wonderful trip.  I have seen this same view when Spring was in full bloom and in the joy of Summer.  But, when I looked over this landscape last year, I felt the holy presence of Fall.  It is a time of color and inspiration as well a time of decay and letting go.  I caught a glimpse into the blessed reality of constant change that surrounds our living and dying. What do I see when I gaze upon Autumn?  I see a whole new palette of color emerging from the shades of Summer green.  I see reds and yellows and browns filling the landscape.  I see unfamiliar birds heading South to claim a winter refuge from the approaching bitter cold.  I see Monarch Butterflies stopping for a quick sip before resuming their flight to the tropical sun of Mexico. These sights bring memories of Autumn’s past when I heard the roar from High School Football Stadiums on Friday nights.  I remembered uncomfortable white shoes standing in wet grass as our band prepared to take the field for a halftime show.  I remembered pulling dead flowers from the beds and watching the earthworms burrow back into the warm soil.  I remembered toasty mornings when I had to go to school without a jacket. It was too warm to wear it home the day before.  Soon, those colors will fall to the earth, the birds and butterflies will have found their winter homes, and the memories will be stored away for another year.  Autumn has enriched my life once again. Unfortunately, many folks feel compelled to say, “Fall is my favorite season.”  This is generally followed by something like, “But I hate the Summer.”  Others may say, “I love Spring, but I cannot stand Winter.”  We seem to feel the need to like one season over another.  We want to believe that one is better than the other.  The seasons of light, Spring and Summer, is often set against the seasons of darkness, Fall and Winter.  The former represents growth and opportunity.  The latter speaks to decline and decay.  But, like all dualisms, this choosing is based on a false dichotomy.  What appears to be two is actually a unity, the cycling of a precious gift called life. Early spiritual writers gained a lot of inspiration from the natural world.  The changing seasons were among the most powerful teachers of spiritual truths.  Hilldegaard of Bingen grounded much of her writing in the ideas of “greening” and “wetness.”  She saw the Spring season in her native Germany as a reflection of the joy and vitality of living.  She grounded her hope in the emerging greens and the frequent, life-giving rains that came every Spring.  God was known in the via positiva, the light that was caste upon creation that brought this greening.  God was knowable and, in knowing we experienced the gift called life. Other writers spoke of a via negativa, or the way of unknowing.  We best experienced the gift of life through the darkness when what we believe we know is obscured.  Knowledge by negation, unknowing, prevented us from overstepping what we believe we know. It allowed us to experience God in the full wonder and awe of mystery. The seasons of Fall and Winter spoke in this path to divine truth.  God is “unknown” in the darkness. However, one does not simply choose one path over another.  One of the writers most commonly linked to the via negativa is Meister Eckhardt.  He, along with John of the Cross, spoke of the necessity of the darkness to clear away the misconceptions and confusions that surround our experiences of God.  However, just as John spoke of moving from a darkened night into the light of God, Meister Eckhardt said it more clearly, “There are people who enjoy God in one way but not in another. They only want to possess God in one way of devotion and not in another. I will say no more about this, but it is nevertheless quite wrong. Whoever wants to receive God properly must receive him equally in all things, in oppression as in prosperity, in tears as in joy. Always and everywhere He is the same.” This valley in SW Colorado taught me a great deal about the necessity of walking both the via positiva and the via negativa in my search for the gift and grace of life.  In fact, having the opportunity to see it in both seasons gave me a deeper insight into life.  It reminds me that with the warmth of Spring comes the rains that awaken the trees from their winter rest.  The sap begins to flow, and the buds appear on each of the branches.  Soon leaves unfold and the greening of the chlorophyll begins to produce sugars that will nourish the tree as it produces blooms and pine cones.  As the days grow longer and the weather warms, insects and breezes disperse the pollen.  These now life-giving seeds are spread by more breezes as well as by birds and other creatures.  Some will take root and grow through the Summer months while others will feed the young creatures in nests that litter the forest floor and rest in the branches of the trees.  The chlorophyll continues to support this living forest as it reproduces and grows.  The season of light has served its purpose and life in abundance prospers. When the new trees take root and the well-fed forest creatures thrive, the days begin to shorten.  The darkness grows each day.  Temperatures begin to fall, and the trees lose their ability to replenish the chlorophyll in their leaves.  The production of sugars decreases, and the tree move toward a time of rest.  Water and nutrients are moved into the roots. The green leaves show their true colors as the remaining sugars show themselves.  Yellows and reds and every hue in between offer a glorious celebration of the end of a successful year.  Gradually, as the darkness takes more and more of the day and the drying winter winds begin to blow, these leaves fall to the ground where they return to the very dirt from which they sprang six months before.  The forest also yields to sleep with the coming of the first snow, as winter blankets the earth for a time of rest and renewal.  The soil takes in the nutrients from the fallen leaves.  Preparations have already begun for the day when the light and warmth will return, and life will begin again.  Even though God cannot be seen and may be unknown to us in the darkness, we know that we are not alone.  If we listen carefully, we will hear God whispering to us from the mystery of the unknowing, “I am with you. Life abounds!” This is life.  To say that one season is better than another is to deny the lessons of knowing and unknowing, light and darkness.  The world is not a place of darkness upon which the light of God has dawned.  Nor is it a home to the light that the darkness of evil threatens to overwhelm.  Instead, is a place where darkness and light foster life, each in their own way.  Neither is bad, both are good for life. It is not wise to choose one path over the other.  The key is to learn the lessons each season offers.  Do not take the Winter cold or the Summer heat as a personal affront to your comfort.  Do not indulge your need to be offended when seasons offer you inconvenient circumstances for your plans.  Let us allow ourselves the blessing that each season serves up for us.  Let us savor it in heaping bowls as we feast on the gift of life throughout the year.  Let us resist cutting ourselves off from what the other path has to teach. Embrace all seasons as opportunities to grow in spirit and in truth.   Blessings, Bob