Autumnal Colors

My eyes have begun to lift higher as the Summer's vibrant hues begin to fade into wind tossed changes in Autumnal breezes. The skies are filled with the textures and colors of the earth's arbors, the gardens of melody that are played by the symphony of songbirds as their flight choreographs in the days and nights. Daylight shortens in bittersweet fashion as we gather collectively to watch the skies and change with the leaves as we reflect, remember, and return to new times. These seasons in the Northern Hemisphere are opposite of that in the South as the North provides the canvas for those in the South to see. To me the end of September is that ambiguous time where Summer and Autumn in transition from one to the next continue as nature's gentle way of saying come with me and change.

Recently I watched the skies open up as rain and wind poured out over the fields and the roads.  The changing of the seasons ever dramatic as the season of growth becomes the season of harvest, the season of gathering and being together in preparation for Winter. With the rain bringing in the cooler weather, I continued to look to the skies for the heavens become our connection to the universe. They create a drama that spreads out across the continents and over the oceans that extends to reach us as we live amongst the flora and fauna that helps color the atmosphere of our planetary home. 

The sky is filled with movement now. Migratory birds form their flocks and head towards warmer regions flying, dancing, with the wind in the shifting change of daily reality. The soul of a planet, in rain, in snow, in hurricanes, in fair blue hues, and rainbows as they fill the skies with momentous displays. With the wind bringing in aromas of apples ripening in orchards and water vapor cooling breezes while hot air balloons take flight, while candles flicker in remembrance, while we point to our loved ones the lights of stars and clouds that form the wondrous shapes of memory, of our home.

It can be the sky in Autumn that takes us from the restless days of Summer as it gathers us with a blanket and guides us to feel at home in the changes life has brought. Or it can helps us  feel at home in the new beginnings of every evening as night showers us with stars and birds sing to us as they come and go in a seasonal lullaby. It is not goodbye, only the cluster of our hearts and souls walking and waking, slumbering, and inspiring as we feel something anew in the colors of the skies. 

Eternal Skies

It's hard to watch the sky. It draws you into its breadth and brings you to a sense that everything is changing and moving so fast. How can we ever expect life to slow down? It is the sky that brings you into being with everything that is a part of our present reality because it draws us towards everything to the east, the west, the south, and the north. It is space and it is real.

At the same time, watching the sky as it changes becomes a chance to experience the patterns of the home we have here on our earth. While it's hue isn't always blue, it is a way to slow down and take it in. To me, I can sit there on a mountaintop or porch by a lake and see the distance covered by the sky. I can never reach the top by walking. As lightning cuts it open and lets the rain pour to the depths and the blueness seems to go up forever, the sky remains our canopy and that of all of life.

As the clouds change shape and form the paths to elsewhere, they are still for but a minute. As we can look up and become part of the earth we find the sky helps us live again.

Multiple layers of sky moving quickly as the sun sets.