Connected While Apart
Surprise

Autumn Seed Heads

Dear Mayfield,
This photograph has quite a story.  I was out Sunday morning for a long walk.  I was hoping to come across some autumn pictures that I could send to my former student and colleague, who is now an Associate Conference Minister in another conference.  She had emailed me the first draft of a service she is putting together for a UCC-wide All Saints’ Day resource to remember those who have died from Covid-19.  She asked if I would edit her draft and make other suggestions for the online materials.  One of the suggestions I made was to include some visuals.  As examples, I was going to send her a couple of photographs to illustrate two prominent themes that are held in creative tension with one another right now.  First of all, autumn is a reminder that we will all cycle over time toward our own mortality.  This is a season of letting go and letting be.  But secondly, in that movement into mortality, the opportunity is ours to scatter multiple sorts of seeds for future growth.  The picture above is my seeds for future growth one.

This was a particularly vibrant bed of coneflowers mixed in with some other blooms just a few weeks back.  These sturdy seed heads invite us to sit up and take notice. I especially focused on this portion of the bed, because in the foreground there is a smattering of web threads connecting different plants in no particular order.  For me that was an extra indicator that each of these aging plants is bound to life well beyond itself into days yet to be. However, there is one additional element in this photograph that I didn’t notice and therefore didn’t plan.  What a great surprise I had when I was reviewing my pictures and deciding which ones to send.

In the top left hand corner, look carefully, and you will see a good portion of an intact orb spider web.  It is a beautiful affirmation of the web of life that embraces every season including the apparent loss and decline of autumn.  Each season is needed to complete the full cycle that holds us together, the human species with all other species.  It seems wisdom greater than mine had a hand in the fullness of this picture.  That fullness is a “take heart” moment, for we are never acting just on our own.
Peace, Martha