Autumn Rambles Day 9: Hibernation

Autumn Rambles is an online resource adapted and used with permission from prayerbench.ca

Day 9 - HIBERNATION

Have you, like me (Rev. Gail) been busy preparing the garden for hibernation. Bringing in pots, digging up plants, packing away that patio furniture? We are getting ready for a season of hibernation – a time of rest. There is a different energy now. Our pacing changes as evenings grow longer and days shorter. Can you feel it? What are these late autumn days like for you? How are you getting ready?

As you ramble think about, and notice how creation is getting ready:

· Like a squirrel busily collecting nuts to make it through the winter. They never forget when they leave their stash.

· Like a bear with thickening coat, increasing their food stores, protecting their cubs, preparing their winter den. (hopefully you won’t see any bears!!!!)

· Like a gold fish chilling out in bottom of their pond, hovering

· Like a queen bumblebee looking for her hibernation spot, digging a little hole in the sandy soil of side of a bank, safe from predators and disease.

· Perhaps more like a snake that technically doesn’t hibernate but burrows deep into a cozy hideout and piles up with other snakes to wait for warmer days.

Whether your autumn brings the hectic renewal of life and work after the summer easing, or a shifting toward gentle rhythms, may we learn from the hibernators to make rest and live restoratively.

A Poem for You Today

Entering Rest

This day is already past. I surrender it.

When I think about tomorrow, I surrender it too.

Keep me this night. With You

And in You I can trust not knowing anything.

I can trust incompleteness as a way.

Dark with the darkness, silent with the silence,

Help me dare to be that empty one—futureless,

desireless—who breathes Your name even in sleep.

— Gunilla Norris, Being Home

Scripture:

Reflect on what burdens you need to lay down – how can you enter in a deep rest in God?

“The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He lets me rest in grassy meadows; he leads me to restful waters; he keeps me alive.” (CEB)

Practice:

Theologian and author Barbara Brown Taylor writes; “God woos us to rest so we can find our worth in who we are, not in what we do.”

Take some intentional time of rest today.

Take some time to slow down and just be still.

Take a time of Sabbath.

Enjoy listening to this piece of music as you rest: (Sabbath Rest; we set our work aside.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAu2IW3XGw8&ab_channel=CoreyKeys