This week I had a conversation with one of the kids at the middle school where I work. She asked me, “What is your favorite month of the year?” It happened to be a sunny day and the hillside where the school stood was ablaze with color. We both agreed on the month October, in part because of the beauty, but also because she loves Halloween. She has been busy planning out her dead bunny costume.
One of my favorite October memories was when Tim and I bundled up our young girls and went for an evening sail in our little yellow Montgomery 17. The evening was brisk, but beautiful with the hillside filled with golds and reds. The sun set that night gave way to a gorgeous full moon. In the moon light we watched and listened to the Canadian geese. All around us were geese, flocks and flocks, flying low and flying south. In their flight there was a quiet sadness.
Joyce Rupp writes, in Praying Our Goodbyes, “There is an ache in autumn that is also within each one of us. This ache is the deep stillness of a late September morning when mists covers the land and the sound of geese going south fills the sky.
There is a wordless yearning or a longing for something in the air, and it penetrates the human spirit. It is a tender, nostalgic desire to gather our treasures and hold them close because the ache tells us that someday those treasures will need to be left behind. Autumn speaks to this pain in our own spirits, that ache which we try to ignore or deny or push aside, that little persistent reminder that death is always a part of life.”
Death is always a part of life, perhaps this is what makes it so very precious. As I remembered the moonlit sail and its chorus of honking geese, I also remembered Jayme. Jayme’s favorite thing in the world was to go duck or goose hunting with his family and friends. He loved to sit in his boat on a lake, hidden by the reeds. He would dress warmly in his tan Carhart’s and sip coffee from his thermos.
Jayme had a huge collection of duck and goose calls. He loved calling the birds in. When he died unexpectedly from a fall, we ended his memorial service with his duck calls. Each of his friends or family member blowing on a different one. This was a perfect benediction as he had been called home. And the prayer that he offered each Sunday during the prayer time was our blessing as we carried on. He always said, “God bless us all this week”. May it be so in the beauty of these October days.
Comments are closed.