Autumn is my favorite season.  I enjoy orange pumpkins for sale in the grocery store, pots of gold and yellow chrysanthemums sitting on porch steps.  The crunch of leaves underneath my feet.  I like to sit outside and write in my journal, relishing cooler winds and changing colors.  At times, I go back to my journals and pick out phrases or paragraphs that remind me of thoughts and feelings I'd like to remember.  Prayers for help.  The following is an eclectic collection I've written this fall...

~The morning feels as if summer found autumn. The air is cool, the sun bright, the day beautifully imbued with freshness.  I am hanging onto my own "freshness," slicing through the chaos and hubbub of the morning at the clinic.  I am getting more skilled at being patient with people.  Letting go of resentments.  Letting go of my own expectations of how life "should" be.

~Abiding is on my mind this day.  Staying in the light. I am tempted toward negative thoughts about writing.  "How will I ever figure out this book project?  People are moreso attracted to audible books now than they are to paperbacks...but I won't obsess about this.  I'll keep taking the next right step.  God, what is the next step?"

~Another morning where my weight is up, and I regret the way I have eaten.  UGH.  More important, it is a new day with new mercies.  I will not live inside shame.  I will trust God and receive His peace and wisdom this day.  I will apprehend His joy and favor.  I will expect that because I am deeply loved and experience intimacy with Him, I have no need for thoughts that bode toward unease and fretting.  I will adopt this way of thinking. I can practice a new thought process because God provides the grace that I need.  Thank you.  I am grateful.  I rejoice.

~Your peace, Lord, is what I lean into today.  Your peace.  Your kindness.  Your gentleness is a weapon in my hand.  Help me, Lord, to stay and abide in the light.  I trust you.  Your favor. Your ability to assuage my fears.  You are good.  You are good.  You are good.  Your yoke is easy.  Your burden light.  Your kingdom ways so diferent from the world's ways.  Continue to renew my mind with your peace and poise.  Your wisdom.  I know I can count on that, Lord.  I know I can.  And I do.

~This morning when I stepped outside, I felt the drop in temperature. I felt invigorated.  A sharpness.  Clarity.

~There is always much to do; this reality must be factored into life.  Yet threaded through all the tasks is shalom peace, the awareness of God's presence.  His power.  His provision and protection, the revelation of His plan unveiled--His Yes and Amen!

~Yesterday I realized I felt more energetic than I have in a long while.  I asked what was different.  The primary change included my heart being open to rejoicing, being thankful.  Let me keep the gratefulness going.

~I am back in the office today.  The atmosphere is hectic, but my spirit is not.  I cannot do life on my own, by my own efforts.  I will trust God's intention to help me.  Yes I will.  Yes I do.

~Life tumbles along like an energetic dog set free from the confines of its yard.  I'm hanging onto the leash, sounds and sights blurring together--pastels, bright sunlight, homes and stones.  There is joy.  I smell the air.  A neighbor waves.  Oh, that I enjoy this day--this day's music.  Capture the notes.  Today I've made a decision to rejoice in my problems, in my imperfections, knowing there is provision in God.  There are answers so wonderful I cannot comprehend them.  Thank you, Lord.  Thank you.  I receive your insight and counsel.  This day I receive your fullness.  Your abundance.  I run with the truth of your faithfulness toward me.  This beauty.  Thank you.  Thank you. Thank you.