08/26/2026
Dear Friends,
When I awoke this morning at 3 a.m. I couldn’t settle my mind and realized it was pointless to lay in bed tossing and turning with the hope I’d fall back to sleep. I gave it an hour. It wasn’t going to happen, so I made my way downstairs, brewed a cup of coffee and called it morning.
It’s been a while since I wrote one of these midweek reflections having spent much of August in various forms of vacation mode first on the coast and then most recently in the North Woods. Both locations held special offerings of their own. The coast with the ever-present sights, smells, and sounds of the ocean as the tides rise and fall, the calls of the osprey, the lapping of the waves, and the pungent odor at low tide. Then there is the North Woods with its own and yet different gifts to the senses – the majestic beauty of Mt. Katahdin, mirror images of the shoreline reflected in the lake’s morning stillness, the rich smell of the forest, and distinctive call of the loons at sunrise or as evening darkness settles in. I feel blessed to have had the unique experiences of both and know that while I pick up my busy schedule again, the lingering touch of restfulness will stay with me every time I look back and within.
This morning I was caught off guard when I glanced out my window at the still dark sky and noticed the constellation Orion holding its place above the eastern horizon. The seasons are changing even though I’m not ready to let go of summer. Here and there along our drive home yesterday we spotted the reds of changing leaves. The cool night air is leaving moisture on the lawn, and the Canada geese are passing by beginning their migration.
“Wait”, I want to shout. “I’m not ready yet”, though my words fail to stop the movement forward. Whether I’m ready or not means nothing to the patterns and cycles of nature. Their course is defined and fine-tuned, predetermined and set in motion. It is I who needs to step into the rhythm of the turning seasons. It is I who needs to let go and fall in line with the changes, the cycles, the patterns that define the natural world and life itself.
Spring leads to Summer, and Summer to Autumn, and Autumn into Winter and back around. These parallel the stages of our lives. Whether we like it or not our cries to halt the process leave us empty. Would that we can find beauty in each season. Would that we can discover wisdom in letting go. Would that we can find ourselves held with a gentleness of presence in the changing seasons of life and rest in the embrace of that which is more than we can name.
Tomorrow, in the dark of morning, before the sun rises, I will look for Orion again and this time with less of a gasp of surprise but with a welcoming nod to a new day and the wonder of the changing seasons outside my window and within my soul.
Journey blessings, Doretta
