I freely confess that I love the fall of the year above all the earth's natural seasons. The summer's heat and humidity become burdensome in an Arkansas August, and the cooler temperatures of fall are a welcome relief. Also, I look forward to the changing colors in the trees and bushes, as green leaves turn yellow and gold and brown and all hues in between. The sun and the air seem to become a little friendlier, a little less oppressive, and there is a feeling in the air of a cycle of life coming to completion. Today's retail way of life robs us somewhat of the age-long connection of the fall season with the harvest of grain; but if we can pull ourselves back from our frantic rushing about, we can still sense and reconnect with that tie, and I think it is vital to our sense of perspective in life to make that connection with a golden time of harvest.

I often read a comic strip called "Overboard," which appears in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Right now, in Overboard, the big pirate Nate is passionately trying to fight off the loss of summer, and desperately resisting the encroachment of autumn. I guess I just don't see the change of seasons in the same way Nate does. What Nate hangs onto, I readily give up. What Nate loathes, I celebrate. To me, the passing of summer is a relief, and the approach of fall is welcome!

When the seasons are changing, I like to think again of the statement by the preacher in Ecclesiastes, to the effect that God has made everything beautiful in its time (Eccl. 3:11). That isn't always obvious, and sometimes we wish that what is happening in nature was not happening, at least not right now. For instance, as I am writing right now, it is raining outside, and I am wishing the rain would go away. It may mess up my evening plans. Or if hail falls, my truck may take damage. And yet, looking at the larger picture, life is not beautiful unless we have rain.

When I was growing up on the farm, the fall of the year was a time for taking stock. We were considering things like our hay harvest and grain harvest. If the barn was full of hay and the crib was full of corn, we could feel that this has been a pretty good year, and we could feel ready for the coming winter. If we were short of hay or grain, we were looking at what we might do to find and buy more, or considering if we should sell off some of the cattle so as to have enough to winter the rest.

I think those times of taking stock are good in life, and not only taking stock of our preparedness for winter. It is a valuable thing to take a look at what we are doing with the benefits and blessings which are coming our way, along with our trials and hardships, and to form a strategy for moving ahead, giving shape to how we expect to manage our situation. There is never a doubt that life is tough, but life also gives us opportunities to take in the beauties and blessings of our time as well.

I have been grateful for the opportunity to have had a country upbringing. It seems to me that country life provides very meaningful and valuable exposures to the natural cycles of life. As the natural seasons move through spring and summer, fall and winter, a person's life and experience also passes through certain seasons. We have a time to be young and immature, while growing and learning; we have a time of taking on the heat of the day and the challenges of making a living; we have a time of slowing down and taking stock; and we will most of us come to deal with the challenges of aging. Some of these times, if a person hasn't gained perspective and faith, may be dread times. But, hopefully, as we take note of the natural cycles of life around us, we will see fascinating things that aren't obvious to the casual glance.

The other day, I had the opportunity to lead a local Cub Scout group on a tour of our Pea Ridge Historical Society Museum. As we were talking about the 1920s and our many small rural schools, one of the boys quizzed me about things that the kids of those years would have had. Did they have electronics? No, nobody had electronics then. (I think it was blowing his mind to conceive of living without electronics.) Then he asked, "Did they have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?" Yes, they had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So, I say, the 1920s, even without electronics, had things that were beautiful in the time. Although inevitably we are creatures of our times, and though we may be slow to realize that life could be good even in days when nobody had the things we now take for granted, we can still fathom that the greater things that make for happiness could be theirs back then; and we still need their insights to make life better today. Not the least of these insights is to perceive that the Lord has given a time and a season for all things, and would have us discover the beautiful in its time.

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Editor's note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist, a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.