How is life? Is it good? Jolly? Hectic? Horrible? Gloomy? Are you depressed that summer is over, yet? Or has that feeling passed you by with the splash of fall colors, fuzzy sweaters, and the murmurs of black birds flying in the skies?
Honestly, it has been the latter for me. Fall has got to be one my top 4 favorite seasons. Yes, I love them all. :P When one season leaves, I love the next one that comes along after it. It could be because I live in a valley surrounded by the wilderness and am able to enjoy the beauty of nature making its annual changes in the system every 3 months or so. Or it could also be because of the new activities that come with each trimester. With fall comes apple picking, and apple-related cooking, hiking through multicolored forests, running, gym class every Friday and the reunion of friends each week, and NaNoWriMo (National Writing Month). Plus, as things start dying/going to sleep for the winter, the queries and questions on the meaning of life and love often comes to my mind. During fall, the beautiful leaves will eventually crumble into brown, crusty, leaves sitting on the ground, the refreshingly cool air becomes bitter and dry, suddenly you find yourself having to start using chapstick again (*THE HORROR*), and all the colors start looking reminiscent to each other. Brown, brown.... and brown. Isn't it amazing how all of this will be changed in another 6 months? Everything will come back, and color, smell, warmth will all be back once again to replace the dull brown/white surroundings? Relating to this to life... I feel like our journey with God is the same. We have those great 'summers' with God, getting our 'faith buzz' and feeling him working in our lives, talking to him and actually knowing that God is talking back. Then, after a big splash of color at summers end, everything starts to turn brown, and dull. Like you're losing touch with God, or you're just going through the motions. Then things get colder, and colder, and colder, until you're feeling the frostbite beginning to seep into the tips of your fingers, toes, and nose. The snow comes, and you find yourself stuck out in the white, shivering to keep yourself warm.
AND WHEN ALL HOPE SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN LOST.
The green pokes through the white, and life is restored once again.
In the summer, I find it interesting how you're able to remember all the good times that you had in the fall/winter, but you can never seem to remember them when you're in the depth of miserable chills. I think it's the same thing with our faith. When we're going through a cold, dull spot in our journey with God, we fail to see all the times we hid under our 'warm covers', reminisced over past summers, sat in a warm corner with a good book, blanket, and a good ol' cup of hot chocolate, or went out into the cold and suddenly realized that you could make yourself warm if you ran around a little and have some fun.
I hope you're understanding all these analogies, otherwise I'm afraid all you'll think I'm talking about is the seasons in this entire post! ;)
Anyway, I'm talking Biology this year as my science class, and it has completely opened up my mind to a completely different perspective on life and the works. It's so intricate, and complicated, but there is a specific purpose for everything. There is a specific reason the first photosystem located in the thylakoid of a chloroplast in a plant cell is actually labeled 'Photosystem II', instead of 'Photosystem I'. There is a reason why everything becomes dry, dull, and brown in the fall and winter. It's because, plants and animals are preparing for spring, the sweet refreshment of life! Likewise with our faith. There is a reason for every tough spot that we face.
AND THAT is Fall for ya. ;)
I also went through about 1,500 of my pictures from Europe (out of the 4,000 that Talia and I took), found 76 that I thought were well shot, but didn't want this post to take an hour to upload, so I wanted to share about half of them with y'all.. I've also posted these (and the rest) pictures on Google+, and soon to be Facebook, as well. ALSO - keep your eye open for a post completely centered on FOOD pictures from Europe. :D
