An online resource from The Prayer Bench, adapted and used with permission

Prompt:
Have you walked or driven past a farm or store with lots of pumpkins outside?
Did it bring back memories of being a kid and carving your pumpkin?
Perhaps you might enjoy this video, or sharing it with you children and grandchildren:
pumpkin video

Reflection: We didn’t grow gourds when I (Rev. Gail) was growing up in England. Like Janet from The Prayer Bench, when I first saw a bin of these brightly coloured, bumpy and smooth, every shape imaginable gourds, I fell in love with them.
Janet tells the story of planting her first gourd garden:
I decided to plant gourds in my first garden. This “garden” was the size of a postage stamp outside a manse in PEI. My grandfather came to help. He was skeptical about planting gourds. I insisted on planting the whole package. Who knew they were a vine! I had a great yield, the only harvest as they took over the space. But I had bowls and bowls of lovely gourds that autumn.  
Gourds might be just ornaments, but they still delight me. I do find, however, that choosing 2-3 fancy gourds each fall is enough!
What’s your autumn delight?
Practice:
Today's practice is more of suggestions for fun activities to do with kids, or with your inner child!
1.  Go and buy a pumpkin and have some fun carving it.  Be creative, and delight in your childhood memories.  If you do this - bring it along to church on Sunday 31st for our intergenerational service in Zion Hall - it will be great to see the different designs!
2.  Turn a gourd into a birdhouse!
Follow these simple step by step simple instructions.  With little effort you can turn a gourd into a bird house, and decorate with delight!  Just click on the link below for details, and delight in having some fun!
How to make a gourd bird house
Peace, Rev. Gail 

​An online resource from The Prayer Bench, adapted and used with permission
Rambling Prompt:

What's in your pocket?

Reflection:
I don't know about you, but I (Rev. Gail) keep my Spring/Summer clothes and Fall/Winter clothes in different places.  As the seasons change, I switch them over so the ones that I need are hanging in my closet.  As I switch them over - I always go through the clothes - some no longer fit (Urgh!!), some I decide I just didn't wear enough so I pass them onto Goodwill for others to enjoy, and all of them I check the pockets.
It's interesting what I might find.  
Maybe it is the library card that I was sure I'd lost.
Or the pair of gloves that I was searching for.
If I'm lucky it might be a $5 bill.
Often it is a stone, or an acorn that I have picked up when on a walk.
Perhaps next year, it will be one of the many masks that I carry.

This has got me thinking - what treasures do we keep in our pockets?

Janice, from The Prayer Bench shares these insights about treasures in our pockets: “It was the custom of some Eastern spiritual guides to give their disciples a pilgrim stone to carry in their pocket. The disciples were told to rub the stone until it became smooth from constant wear, a sign of their intention to wear away the rough edges of their personality. To touch the stone in one’s pocket on occasions throughout the day was a reminder of the real work of that day, one’s inner transformation.” (Edward Hayes, Prayers of a Planetary Pilgrim)
Practice:
Take some time to go through your pockets and write an inventory of what might be in them.  Reflect on what each item might say about you.
Perhaps as you go on a walk, find a stone to pick up and carry in your pocket.
As a spiritual practice, I share with you this breath prayer from Janice, and invite you to repeat it several times:
Breathing in: “Where your treasure is”
Breathing out: “there your heart be also.” (Luke 12:34)
​
Peace,  Rev. Gail

An online resource from The Prayer Bench used with permission

Spend time amongst falling leaves or enjoy a walk, through piles of leaves.  If this is not possible, watch this short video of a child playing in the  leaves:

Child playing in leaves video

Reflection
I (Rev. Gail) used to love playing in the leaves both as a child, and as a parent with a little one.  And still, as an 'older' adult I like to feel the crunch of leaves beneath my feet as I walk in the woods. Joyce Rupp captures the metaphor of falling leaves in her poem: 

Why is this dance of death so lovely?
why do leaves seem so willing to go?
are they whispering to each other,
urging one another to be freed?
maybe “you first and then I’ll follow”
or: “you can do it, go ahead”
supporting one another gladly
in their call to final surrender.” – Joyce Rupp

To catch a glimpse of a leaf in its falling is always a gift. Reflect on how this could be a metaphor for what is letting go inside of you? Does this letting go come with blessing or is there angst arising in you? What practice of releasing is taking shape deep within and summoning your attention?
Perhaps there is rightness of the rhythm of the falling leaves. The seasons turn and we turn inward yielding to the call of the leaves.
A practice
Take time to slowly read this scripture from the ancient Hebrew book of Sirach.  Leaves can teach us about the cycle of life.  As you read, remember that all life is sacred: it is sacred in its being born, in it's dying, and in it's living.

Like clothes, every body will wear out,
the age-old law is, “Everyone must die.”
Like foliage growing on a bushy tree,
some leaves falling, others growing,
so are the generations of flesh and blood:
one dies, another is born.

 Sirach 14: 18-20

An online resource from the Prayer Bench used with permission

Is it sunny? Notice the dust glitter in the air. Or walk to a place of dappled light and rest and savour, or look out of your window at the light hitting the surroundings.

Reflection In Autumn, the sun moves across a lower arc in the sky and the long angles of slanted light create a rich golden glow. Filtering through colourful leaves on trees and long-stemmed seed pods dancing in the breeze, the light is softer in Autumn.
This golden diffused light makes dust particles in the air sparkle like glitter, the shapes of trees and plants are wreathed in light as if golden statues. Both at dawn and dusk, as the sun rises and sets, the Autumn light renders the ordinary and humble into views of breath-taking beauty. The precious metal of gold might be worth real money but a golden Autumn day offers a different form of riches.
Light is a metaphor often used in the Bible to explain God and to name Jesus Christ. In the golden light of an Autumn late afternoon, we can feel embraced in a warmth inspiring a sense of being rich in wonder, delight, comfort and love.
A practice for you
I invite you to listen to this song, "Golden Hour" by Kacey Musgraves, and reflect on how is God your 'golden hour'?
Golden Hour, but Kacey Musgraves
Peace, Rev. Gail

Attachments area
Preview YouTube video Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour (Audio)


Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour (Audio)

An online resource from The Prayer Bench and used with permission

Focusing Thought
Robin Wall Kimmerer writes,
“We are showered every day with the gifts of the Earth, gifts we have neither earned nor paid for: air to breathe, nurturing rain, black soil, berries and honeybees, the trees that became this page, a bag of rice and the exuberance of a field of goldenrod and asters at full bloom.” (- “Returning the Gift”)

Reflection
Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.  As you ramble today, find a place that invites you to pause and soak up the atmosphere. Open your heart to earth loving you and let this be your prayer.

The Practice
Take a moment to read this poem "Blackberry Eating " by Galway Kinnell.  You can also listen to it by clicking on this link:
https://poets.org/poem/blackberry-eating
I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black art
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my tongue,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths or squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled lumps,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well
in the silent, startled, icy, black language
of blackberry-eating in late September.
After your ramble, write your own poem, prayer or hymn of gratitude for a gift of Earth or blessing that you see around you.

"Let us thank the Earth
that offers ground for home
And holds our feet firm
To walk in space open
To infinite galaxies."
John O'Donohue

As you ramble today, take notice of signs and appreciate the colour and diversity of your local flowers and foliage.
Reflection
Colourful Mums are part of the Canadian Fall landscape.  Growing up in England, the word "mums" had a very different connection for me (Rev. Gail).  I couldn't help ;augh when I read this short story from Janice, author of The Prayer Bench. I hope it gives you a chuckle too:
"We’d only been in Canada for a couple of days into our three-week touring holiday, when we were joined for a day by our friend, an academic with expertise in the radical reformation of the 16th Century.
He climbed aboard our motorhome, to guide us on a tour of his local area of Kitchener-Waterloo in Ontario, with a particular emphasis on showing and telling us about Mennonites. Our guide was providing an entertaining and in-depth commentary which was extremely enjoyable for our own resident academic with a similar sphere of interest, but the rest of us were also spellbound.
Until… “Stop!” Yelled young son who was 12 at the time. We stopped the motorhome, and everyone eagerly looked out the window. Immediately there were smiles and laughter from the rest of the family. Our guide was surprised and had paused mid-sentence, wondering if he should feel offended at the interruption. He too looked out the window. He couldn’t see what had caused such a dramatic stop or inspired such laughter (although once enlightened he too enjoyed the humour and wasn’t offended).
‘Mums for Sale’ read the sign. This appealed to young son, who dragged me out of the van to have my photo taken next to the sign, pretending to purchase me, delighted that in Canada people sell and buy Mums.

Practice
Colouring for adults has become a spiritual practice in recent years.  It can slow us down, and help us reflect.  Today, I invite you print off this sheet of Mum to colour - you could also take a walk in your neighbourhood and take photos of various Mums.
Download colour page

Peace,
Rev. Gail