Receiving, Growing, Giving Away, and Receiving Again
Lynne Therese Elwinger, O.C.D.
Here came autumn again, offering fruits, trailing splendid leaf-colored glory! Then, almost without warning, the mood changed and we now see before us a beautiful model of generous detachment. All the external jewels are released and have fallen back to the earth. Seeds of many kinds, leaves, fruits, temperatures and almost everything in nature seem to have fallen, as summer’s possibilities gradually faded into a time of giving away. Now, past mid-November, trees are standing in bare-boned beauty and with the less intense sunlight, call us to simplicity and a return to the essentials. Sap is going back to roots to nourish and protect the more hidden dimension of tree life beneath the earth. A subtle quiet steals across the land as days shorten and nights lengthen.
System Of Balances
The feast of St. Teresa of Jesus seemed to fit perfectly with the moods of autumn, with its rhythms of giving and receiving, of activity and rest. As with those magical times of sunrise, sunset, twilight, and the meetings of rainstorm and sun that produce rainbows, autumn itself seems to live in the borderland, blending light and darkness, the outgoing and the receptive, the fruiting and the next year’s seeding. We are gracefully carried through the transition from summer’s exuberant growth to winter’s quiet rest, in a way that softens sharp edges and abrupt contrasts as do lights that are slowly dimmed. In the way of life that St. Teresa encouraged for her Sisters, she created a system of balances, with silence and speech, solitude and community, contemplative prayer and everyday work. Both autumn and the contemplative approach to relationship with God feature the unceasing rhythmic cycles of grateful receiving and gracious giving, of growth and fruition followed by openhanded letting go of the fruits.
We Belong To The Sacred
The rhythm of contemplative life incorporates into each day time for root nurturing, rest, growth, sharing fruits, seed-bearing, and then root nourishment again. Without the bearing of fruit, the purpose for others of our way of life would be lost. Without the return to the ground of being for sustenance, the capacity to bear fruit would be lost. At our depths, we belong to the Sacred in the same way the tree belongs to the earth. Rooted in the Holy, we receive its nourishment, inspiration and support. We produce buds, flowers and fruit, give it all away, and again return to center to be with the One who nurtures us. These same cycles can be fostered in any lifestyle and place and bring grounding and refreshment.
Take a Second Look
Nature reminds us in autumn to take a second look. First having captured our attention with blazing reds, golds and oranges, to be sure that we paid attention, she drops it all back to earth, leaving the framework of tree structure starkly revealed. The austerity of bare trees, limbs akimbo waving in the wind, carries a charm all its own, and beckons us to try its path. “Let go”, is whispered on every breeze, inviting us to take stock, to simplify, simplify, simplify. I am always as engaged by this as I have been by the earlier glorious color. It fits the cycles of my soul. Needing simplicity as well as complexity in life, I need to rest in the serenity of bare trees, free of the demands fruit-bearing brings. In this season, we are invited to take time to nourish our roots, hidden deep within the soil of the divine ground of our being. Healthy living requires both the fruiting and the resting, as we participate in the inbreathing and the outbreathing of God’s Spirit within us. The feasts of Saints Teresa and Therese added resonance and depth to autumn’s messages: give beauty, bear fruit, then go within and be nourished for the next growing and fruiting and giving away.
Sr. Lynne Thérèse Elwinger of the Resurrection O.C.D.