麻豆约拍

From Father Brian D鈥橝rcy, a Catholic Passionist priest:

These dark, bleak autumn days take some getting used to.聽

To help me cope I grab a walk in the woods as often as possible. The fresh air and the beauty of the countryside give me a lift.

Each day nature ensures I enjoy a unique experience. You should try it if you can and get to know how inspiring falling leaves can be.聽

In her book of reflections, 鈥楽tations on a Celtic Way,鈥� Margaret Silf encourages us to meditate on the process of letting go as winter approaches.聽

I tried it and it sharpened my focus on the glorious opportunity God was offering me. Autumn shows us how beautiful it is to let things go. Trees in autumn are powerful preachers.

Just as the trees shed their leaves, I realise it鈥檚 time for me to let some things go too. At this point in my life many of the friends I cherished are dying anyway.

The falling leaves represent the many losses I am struggling to accept. As I walked I simply acknowledged the losses without judgement.

I began to realise that in time losses become seeds.聽

For example, moving away from the people I loved broke my heart but also provided the space to write a Memoir I鈥檝e wanted to complete for years; I finally found time to do it. That is the seed that came from a painful parting.

Genuine doubts about the future of the Church I鈥檝e lived with for seventy years opened up a deeper understanding of God鈥檚 plans. In life and in love nothing stays the same.

Dead leaves today will fertilise new buds next spring.聽

So when I accept that healthy grief is part of the cycle of life, it builds a bridge into a whole new vision of the universe.

Whilst walking in the woods with dying leaves crunching under my feet, the trees in autumn taught me to leave behind what is dying so that I can be enriched by new life in God鈥檚 good time.

As Virginia Woolf said: 鈥淎nd all the lives we ever lived/ and all the lives to be/are full of trees and changing leaves.鈥�