Fall Invites us to Sabbath- Day 14

Another Sunday morning comes
And I resume the standing Sabbath
Of the woods, where the finest blooms
Of time return, and where no path

Is worn but wears its makers out
At last, and disappears in leaves
Of fallen seasons. The tracked rut
Fills and levels; here nothing grieves

In the risen season. Past life
Lives in the living. Resurrection
Is in the way each maple leaf
Commemorates its kind, by connection

Outreaching understanding. What rises
Rises into comprehension
And beyond. Even falling raises
In praise of light. What is begun

Is unfinished. And so the mind
That comes to rest among the bluebells
Comes to rest in motion, refined
By alteration. The bud swells,

Opens, makes seed, falls, is well,
By becoming what it is:
Miracle and Parable,
Exceeding thought because it is.

Immeasurable; the understander
Encloses understanding, thus
Darkens the light. We can stand under
No ray that is not dimmed by us.

The mind that comes to rest is tended
In ways that it cannot intend:
Is borne, preserved, and comprehended
By what it cannot comprehend.

Your Sabbath, Lord, thus keeps us by
Your will, not ours. And it is fit
Our only choice should be to die
Into that rest, or out of it.

by Wendell Berry

The days are getting shorter. Dark lingers longer in the mornings. Comes earlier in the evenings.

The rhythms of it invite me to let go. Rest. Restore. Renew.

I don’t have to make everything run, work. Into God’s arms I can rest.

He can run the world by his glance. Sustain life by his breath.

And so the shorter days remind me of my limitations. And the power of his abilities.

The cadence of Fall ushers us into considering the Sabbath flow. I’m looking forward to exploring it together this week.

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I’m participating with The Nester in 31 Days of Noticing Fall. This is Day 14.

If you missed any days in the series, you can find my posts here.

Wendell Berry has a beautiful book, A Timbered Choir- the Sabbath Poems 1979-1997. Check it out here.

Contains affiliate links.

Thank you Cindy Ford for the photograph. She takes amazing pictures of God’s creation. You can see them here.