Near the End

Autumn: A Spiritual Biography of the Season

By Edited by Gary Schmidt & Susan M. Felch

Gary Schmidt, professor of literature at Calvin College, has culled a collection of thoughts and reflections to aid in clarifying the spiritual themes of the season. Take advantage of this opportunity to explore centuries of fine literature focused on fall.From Autumn: A Spiritual Biography of the Season
I have been walking in the woods, and have lain down on the ground to rest. It is the middle of October, and around me, all through the woods, the leaves are quietly sifting down. The newly fallen leaves make a dry, comfortable bed, and I lie easy, coming to rest within myself as I seem to do nowadays only when I am in the woods . We must recover the sense of the majesty of creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. – Wendell Berry

Autumn, with all its traditional images of colorful trees, frost-covered pumpkins, and piles of wood stored up against the cold of winter, can be a season filled with anticipation. The harvest, the imminent onset of cold and snow, the resumption of old routines, and the beginning of the school year all require preparation and planning. If summer has been something of a pause, autumn helps us to see the passage of time more clearly.

Autumn is a season of fruition and reaping, of thanksgiving and celebration of abundance and goodness of the earth. But it is also a season that starkly and realistically encourages us to see our own limitations.

Warm and stirring pieces by E. B. White, Anne Lamott, P. D. James, Julian of Norwich, May Sarton, Kimiko Hahn, and many others in this beautiful book rejoice in autumn as a time of preparation and reflection, when the results of hard labor are ripe for harvest.