"God is always at home. It is we who have gone out for a walk."  Meister Eckhart

The season is changing in Minnesota. Days are shorter. In both morning and evening, the air is tinged with the cool, crisp smell of fall. The inner leaves of the maple tree in our front yard have begun to show signs of red and yellow. And the squirrels that jump cavalierly from tree to tree now carry black walnuts in their tiny mouths. It is at these times of great change when it is particularly wise to be awake to all that is happening, all that is changing, all that is dying, all that is being transformed, all that is being born.

There is much to learn from the changing seasons. There is a comfort, at least for me, in the cycle that rolls from birth to life to death and returns to rebirth. Paying attention to this rhythm of Creation can help keep the nagging details, those situations we have no control over, those things that ‘bug’ us, in balance. By being present to the rhythm that exists in the cycles of day and night, season to season, is one way the Universe reminds us that, in the end, ‘it will be okay.’

Nicholas de Malebranche, a 17th century philosopher seeking to make sense of the work of St. Augustine and Descartes while writing about his own concept of the vision of God said:"Attentiveness is the natural prayer of the soul." I know that so many times my hours, my minutes…..even my days…are spent without much attentiveness. In those days my soul is robbed of its natural rhythm of prayer. What a sad thing!

And so in these days of change, we are invited by the One who is always at Home to be attentive, to notice, to witness. Our world is changing around us and what a sorry thing it would be if we were asleep, or even worse too busy, to notice.