Thank You for the Gift of Writing

I started writing around 40 years ago. My career involved engineering and technical work as well as executive management. I found that writing was a way to express thoughts and ideas beyond the technical stuff. It’s been a blessing and gift from God that I am thankful for. Here's something I wrote recently that reflects on changing seasons: 

Summer Slips Into Autumn
Summer’s warmth softens at the edges,
Its golden sway growing gentler, quieter
Like sunlight filtered through amber grasses
Swaying at day’s slow end.

The long green fields begin to hush.
Crickets trade their bold chorus with a tractor in the distance
For a softer twilight hymn.
The breeze that once smelled of cut hay and riverbanks
Now carries the faint rustle of seasonal change
Cool, thoughtful, unhurried.

Leaves begin their turning:
Green giving way to gold, to russet, to ember-orange,
As though the trees are painting their own benedictions across the sky.
Branches shimmer with a final flare of color,
Like candles burning brighter
Just before they succumb to darkness.

Smoke curls from tidy piles of fallen leaves,
A thin ribbon of autumn incense
Rising into the clear blue air.
The scent recalls bonfires,
Old wool sweaters,
The quiet of evenings coming sooner
Soft footsteps of dusk.

Pumpkins appear on porches, round and bright,
Resting among dried corn stalks and brittle vines,
Like lanterns of joy offered to the turning world.
Their carved smiles flicker warmly in the gathering dark,
Small hearths of welcome.

And in this season of gentle endings,
We find our hearts remembering:
Family gathered close, hands clasped,
Stories told around warm tables,
Moments that outlast time.

We offer gratitude
For what we have known,
For what we hold now,
For what we must release,
For God’s steady, ever-present grace.

Seasons pass, as months move on
As summer slips into autumn, we learn again:
Every season has its blessing,
And every blessing
Its reason to be treasured.