The last remnants of a faded sunflower. After the showy display, it seems fitting that a distinctly superior snail should be handling the waste removal. No plain brown mix on the shell; a dazzling spiral of neat lines over a whitish dome. Pretty, isn’t it?
Autumn is speeding up now. Leaves are changing and falling, seed-heads are heavy, and my local squirrels are planting acorns in my lawn. They are also snacking on the bright red rose-hips before the local birds have got their act together. Before long, the frosts- and the long winter rest until the season rolls over in to Spring.
Snails are rather astonishing. They lay their own path slimily across the garden. They chomp up the wasted debris of the dying, and at this time of year count as a gardener’s friend. Come March the relationship will change if snails snaffle my seedlings again!
Autumn is a good time to do a “soul clearance”… checking the growth of the year, clearing the dead bits, and resting to recover energy and renew purpose.
I’m not sure that snails will be good for the soul- but seeing how God has designed creation, even down to waste removal, is profoundly educational. There is a time for every purpose under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3).
There’s an opportune time to do things,
a right time for everything on the earth:
A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace.
Eccles. 3:1-8
To read this slowly, and then pray through the news bulletin, is a good way to clear the mind and soul of the accumulated detritus that living brings. It gives perspective. The latest doings of world leaders, natural changes of weather and circumstance, even the sense of weary dread that another year hasn’t brough quite the harvest we’d hoped for… all these fall into place, and so make room for hope and new energy for next year.
God is the expert at doing everything AT THE RIGHT TIME. It’s not up to us to organise history or the future! Go peaceful into rest.
The Reflectionary 