Thoughts from a son in the Autumn of the year

It's All Saints Day this Sunday -- that hallowed day that follows the frightening night of the souls of saints known and unknown who can laugh in the "face of death" and ask, "O death, where is thy sting?" On All Saints day, I'm leaving for Eden Seminary where my late father received his Master of Divinity. There will be a special service that day -- that day when my father and others will be remembered for their faithful service within the Church of Jesus Christ.

Eden is that mythological garden of new beginnings -- how fitting that I should return to this place of new beginnings. I was born in that garden -- that place of new beginnings. It was there that my father held me as a newborn -- where the arms of my mother received me on my birthing day. And now, I return to this place of beginnings to remember my father. When he held me in the dormitory all those years ago, I can't imagine that he thought about his dying day. As I celebrated my first birthday in mythical garden of Eden, was he thinking about the day he would die? It was January of his Senior year when my younger sister was born in this garden of new beginnings. On that day was he thinking about the day he would leave this earthly garden to his heavenly home? This place of new beginnings -- to where I am returning -- is where I go to remember an ending -- or is it a new beginning?

It's late October now and as I look into the beauty of Autumn, I am reminded of the cycle of the natural world. In this garden -- this place called earth, the leaves are floating gently to the ground, finding their rest upon the forest floor -- leaf upon leaf. The beautiful gold, yellow, red and orange leaves find their resting place and there they wait -- wait until the cold and damp of winter settles upon their once spirited and beautiful journey -- a place they never imagined they would be just 6 months earlier. But even in winter's blustery cold, the leaves that were floating by just minutes ago, will soon find their peace upon the forest floor and there they will remain. Is it an ending or a beginning?

In the mythological garden of new beginnings, there are many trees. The trees are beautiful, they are full, they are healthy, and they have grown. This is true because of the golden leaves now lying on the forest floor that have fed and nurtured, protected and loved the trunks and branches so that might live to praise their creator. Leaves, once green and filled with life, lay lifeless on the ground, yet their memory nurtures the roots that will birth new life in this mythological garden of new beginnings.

The trees that lie dormant through a season have the life they have because of the leaves that have fallen on this Autumn day. I am going to Eden to remember my father, the one who has given me life. The leaves that have fallen become fertile soil for new life in the spring. Likewise, a father's love, a father's memory never dies. It keeps on giving and, in an end, is a new beginning. And so, I babble on -- remembering with gratitude all the Saints who give us life.