As I sit here, pondering my life, I realise I have a beautiful view outside. Tall, majestic clouds float past the Blorenge, a mountain I have an uninterrupted view of from my windows. In the summer, everything is a vibrant green, but in the autumn, it all turns a fiery red. I watch the trees lose their leaves, and the mountian turn brown. When the sun comes, like today, it has moments of fiery red.
Why am I writing this, you may ask? Well, it’s like this:
Autumn is not a depressing time. Think about the trees - they go through the annual cycle of growth and rest. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says:

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”

So as the trees go through the cycle of the seasons as dictated to them from the very beginning, we see that they go through a process of renewal and strengthening each time. Whenever I see the trees lose their leaves, I realise that they will grow again in the spring, and become stronger for having been through the whole process.
So it is with us. We are people who will go through difficult times, where we cannot sleep, cannot rest or relax, and it feels as though the weight of the world is upon our shoulders. Jesus never came to say ‘Rest up guys (and gals), you don’t ever have to stress about anything ever again’. Now he did say not to worry about tomorrow, and to cast our burdens onto Him, and to be honest, quite often I feel guilty that I should have to do such a thing. So now I find myself in a personal Autumn where the pressures are great, maybe of my own making - but that’s not the problem here, it is the finding of the solutions that we need. In the process of casting burdens, we find ourselves in a clearer position, similar to winter air, which is crystal clear compared to the haze of summer. Only then can we see clearly, and be revealed the solutions to issues, or the path we should take. Yes, the days are shorter, and nights dark, and this gives us the cosy feeling in the evenings when we have the fire burning (if you’re old scholl like me) and you’re sat all cosy on the sofa. After the darkness of a winter, comes the fresh spring. Spring is awesome because the trees grow their leaves once more, flowers bloom, and life seems anew.
I can’t wait for my spring to come. Too long have I waited in the darkness of winter.

God has blessed me with so much, and for that I am grateful. As mentioned in “The Matrix : Reloaded” -
“That went badly”
“No it did not”
“Why?”
“Because we are still alive”

So it is. I am still alive, despite all the hustle and bustle of modern living. Slowly I am growing to dislike the pace of modern life, even despite living in what many would define as a ‘rural market town’. Occasionally I wish I never knew a thing about computers. That is true. Still, God knows exactly what He’s doing, and it’s ok by me.

The photo above was taken around 2000, at the start of the autumn season, and shows heavy clouds on the blorenge. Scanned from a dusty negative, taken with a dirt cheap film camera. Obviously, it’s been cropped to fit the whole theme of this site.