“It’s beginning to look a lot like Chri….”sung like a lounge singer…

“Stop that! Stop that!” shouted in a Monty Python style…

It’s October, it’s too early to mention Chri…., you know the word.

But the shops are already stocking up with plastic fangs and black capes and sachets of fake blood….

And by the time you read the next Vicar’s Letter in the church magazine the fake blood and fangs you find in the shops…

… Well they’ll have been replaced by sickly sweet mint candy canes and red furry hats made somewhere far away.

The nights are drawing in…

The leaves are turning brown…

The conkers…. Well, they’ve gone…

The hand has reached for the thermostat….

And the annual search for the winter coats has already been scheduled for just a few weeks time.

And if we’re not careful, we rush, and autumn is gone and done in a moment.

But autumn is itself a treasure.

It’s not the bright lights of Chri…, those bright lights on a string.

Nor is it the pure, heat-filled delight of the three glorious days of summer spread between May and August…

But autumn is no less a treasure.

A time for slowing down. A time for Hygge. A time for packing summer things down,

Not quite time for finding the box of Chri…. Of finding the decorations.

But a time in its own right.

And a time that is a very earthly, very earthy time to reflect.

To notice the seasons passing. And the birds becoming quieter. A time to marvel at the silhouette’s of tree branches on cold autumn evenings as the sun begins to fade behind the horizon.

A beautiful time.

A time to be enjoyed.

So enjoy it, before the hustle and bustle of Chr…

Enjoy it before the hustle and bustle of winter is upon us.

Maybe we’ll pass each other in the street, kicking leaves like children

Or rushing inside to avoid another downpour.

Take care, take it slow, and God bless you this Chri…

God bless you this autumn as well!

Tim