Falling

by Catherine Smith | Oct 20, 2021

A bright yellow maple leaf lies on grass, partially surrounded by green blades and dandelions. Shadows of stems and flowers are cast across the leaf in sunlight.

Show us your glory, O Living Presence
and teach us to rise by descending.

Here, it is autumn. The colours of leaves heighten, they rise even as they fall.  In the plainest or sorriest of moments they may take our breath away.  They flood us with wonder at something we have not brought about but can only receive.  Each leaf offers to us its small gift of wisdom.

Show us your glory, O Living Presence, teach us to rise by descending.  Teach us though the falling: of leaves, of striving, of time and age - rising.

I watch the bright and the bareness.  I feel the free-falling into the supple Web of Love that never breaks or ends.

The quotation is from Common Prayer:  A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals
I've taken the liberty of changing Lord to Living Presence which reflects my encounter with the Holy One.

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Catherine Smith

Catherine Smith is a writer and retired United Church minister whose words invite pause, prayer, and re-imagination.

Through Hem of the Light, she shares reflections and resources that honour longing, nurture hope, and uncover the sacred shimmering at the edges of everyday life.

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