Minister’s Column
On Monday this week I took my day off to revisit a favorite trail nearby. I have made a regular yearly trip to this particular trail around the spring equinox in March; this time I was hiking just after the autumnal equinox.
This time of year is delightful, with pleasant sunny days and cool nights. The lush green of the summer is still with us. At home my garden is mature with some flowers still blooming; tomatoes are ripe on the vine. The leaves on the trees have begun to turn their fall colors.
Since I know this particular trail from the past four spring equinoxes, I have seen the woods there with snow and ice on the ground; with the trees still bare from the winter. What a contrast to the green forest in September! Instead of dressing in winter layers, I walked with a T-shirt in 70 degree weather.
One part of the trail is a marshy area with a series of wooden boardwalks. Muddy in the spring, the marshland is dry and grassy in the fall. The ferns grow tall there, and they have turned a bright yellow. Their color winds through the woods like a river, the ferns growing along the course of a small stream. Patches of the woods are a bright red, reminding me that this time of year changes quickly: the daily change in daylight hours is greatest at the equinox.
I like this trail for its remoteness as well. On my last hike there in March I met one fellow hiker, a young woman with a dog; this week I met one hiker on the trail, a young man shouldering a rifle (he said he was hunting for squirrels). It is a place that allows me to connect with forest and the stream, to contemplate for a moment the passage of time as measured by our orbit around the sun.
PRAYER:
Mother Earth, blue spinning ball, we ride on your surface cycling around the sun. At fall equinox–known to Pagans as Mabon–we stand due west of the sun, and the days and nights are equal.
You have absorbed the sun’s light all summer, which keeps us warm still and lets green things grow even as the days shorten toward Samhain and ultimately Yule.
May the change of seasons be blessed by peace among people and nations. May each of us find serenity and take a moment to contemplate our life’s journey, the Earth’s journey, and the stars’ journey.
Blessed be.
Rev. Andrew Frantz
September 27, 2023