Fall

Fall is upon us with its cool days, with the dying away of vegetation, the harvests, the quiet grey days offering respite from the long daylight hours of summer labors.  It is the time of flannel, gloves, moving firewood close to the hearth and putting back, putting up, and putting down.  It is fall, my yard is textured with the leaves as the trees have begun laying down the sheet of their winter rest, laid bare to all that comes, silent dark sentinels that guard the earth.  Fall has come and with it a long-needed rest.  Thanksgiving is visible, Christmas in sight, the Heavenly Host, the manger, the Savior in swaddling clothes, all are beginning to abide with us.