Rituals

I love October. I love the crispness in the air. I love the deepening blue sky. I love all the intoxicating flavors of sight, sound, and fragrance -ripe and abundant- on any given early morning walk through the neighborhood. Leaves are beginning to burst with color, the call of the owl has returned, and chimneys everywhere are offering up their contributions to this magical mix.

The smallest thing happened the other day to get me thinking about how we welcome the changing seasons. Since the beginning of summer, white cotton sheets have graced our bed. They are light, cool, and altogether delightful to sleep on during the sweltering summer nights. Yesterday I washed them and hung them on the line to dry as usual and to soak up that fabulous sunshine smell. This has been my custom for the past three months. This time, however, when I brought them in, instead of placing them directly on the bed, I folded them neatly and laid them away in the cedar chest.

Taking their place was the thicker, weightier, sage green set that had been lying in wait for just the perfect moment. As I smoothed the fabric over the mattress, the soft scent of mahogany-vetiver lifted into the air. I had forgotten that I had placed the remnants of my favorite candle in the trunk last spring to mingle its scent among the linens stored there. "Ahhh, fall is here," I thought to myself.

This was such a tiny change, but it signaled the beginnings of movement from one season to the next. There is something both lovely and natural about welcoming the newness and hope the coming season brings and blending it seemlessly with the familiarity and ritual of the things we love. Lit candles, blankets strewn about, hearty fare coming from the kitchen... these are the things that at one and the same time envelop us and also energize us.

The new... the old. The routine... the ritual. How wonderful it is that God gives us these moments to look forward to, to refresh us, to give us new vigor for life. We move through these changing seasons with a deep passion and a renewed sense of purpose. This is our Sabbath. This is our time to draw closer to the God who created these extraordinary days. This is the time to offer up our praise and gratitude for all His blessings great and small. For brilliant blue skies, for crisp morning air, for owl songs and fiery leaves... and, yes, even for the ritual of something as insignificant, and as lovely, as changing the linens.