Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Changes

         How much has changed since I last wrote, and all the many ways that I have grown in being whom God meant me to become. The joys that I experienced during the summer when I worked at a camp near my parents, were but a small taste. It was not a single moment in time that me come to my decision, but rather a multitude of moments. So many years ago, I told God quite simply that I was not going to be a teacher, but over time and with much gentleness, He helped me to change my mind. So here I am, wondering what moments lead me coming to the conclusion of teaching English (ESL) to people who desire to learn to speak English. And while I do not know what changed my mind, only that over time my mind was changed.
          That is not the only change going on, I look outside and see the leaves fall, the wind blows, and the crispy air, and know that a different kind of change is coming, but this change is constant. And with this change in the seasons, I always seem to remember a poem that I memorized so long ago: October by Robert Frost.

O hushed October morning mild, 
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this slow,
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist; 
Enchant the land with amethyst
Slow, slow!
For the grapes' sake, if they were all, 
whose leaves already burnt with frost
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost --
For the grapes sake along the wall.


Yet this is not the first change nor shall it be the last change that will come, for other changes will come. But amidst this change in the season, I will enjoy the change in the beauty as the trees shed their leaves and a new kind of beauty comes in.