It’s another absolutely beautiful autumn day here in Maine. I’m sitting in the sun with an old friend who is lamenting the onset of winter. While I’m not a fan of winter either, and can appreciate her reluctance to face another cold and snowy season, I’m also struck by all that I suspect she’ll miss if she continues to resist the inevitable. I’m reminded of the wisdom of Shauna Niequest who wrote in Bittersweet: Thoughts on Change, Grace, and Learning the Hard Way
, “Use what you have, use what the world gives you. Use the first day of fall: bright flame before winter’s deadness; harvest; orange, gold, amber; cool nights and the smell of fire. Our tree-lined streets are set ablaze, our kitchens filled with the smells of nostalgia: apples bubbling into sauce, roasting squash, cinnamon, nutmeg, cider, warmth itself. The leaves as they spark into wild color just before they die are the world’s oldest performance art, and everything we see is celebrating one last violently hued hurrah before the black and white silence of winter.”
Niequest reminds us of the importance of not only savoring our gifts, but also of receiving what comes our way with an open heart – even winter, even the darkness…
Spirituality, Therapy, and the Good Life 
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