Outside Our Very Front Door

Autumn is finally here in California. Now, we don’t get fall colors like New England, and we barely get temps low enough to be classified as sweater weather. But we do get one fall staple like much of the rest of the population: cold and flu season. And this month has been a doozy for us. With two asthmatic kids who do not fare well during the onslaught of viruses, we didn’t spend much time outside these past few weeks. In fact, my husband was traveling so much that I barely made it out the front door. 

During the first wave of sickness, when my husband was home one afternoon, I took the opportunity to run some errands. I decided I’d grab some coffee and run to the library to pick up our holds. No one would miss me if I spent thirty minutes sipping my coffee with a good book in the quiet library. It would be a nice respite. But when I got to the library and stepped out of my car, I was taken aback by the perfection of fall all around me. The trees around the library were waving their crimson branches while a crisp breeze made their fallen leaves dance across the parking lot. The sky was the perfect shade of blue with pillowed clouds drifting by. The temperature was hovering around 70 degrees. I hurriedly picked up my books and went back outside to find a place where I could enjoy the natural ambiance. There is a seating area, made of hewn stone, with a monument on the lawn of our library, and I wandered over to sit. I chose a rock-bench that had a small olive branch resting near the edge of the block. I looked above me…I hadn’t remembered seeing any olive branches in this area before. Sure enough, there were no olive branches to be found. It was part of the sculpture…surprisingly realistic for being made of metal and stone. I briefly wondered if the artist started his education with clay, if maybe he or she had a Charlotte Mason-inspired teacher that encouraged modeling natural specimens. I tucked away a reminder to find an olive branch for my kids to model in clay. 

The next day, on the way home from picking up cough medicine at the pharmacy, I took a back street home, through a business area, to avoid traffic, and turned onto a street bathed in golden light from tall, yellow-leaved trees lining both sides of the road, reflecting the sunlight. It was magical. I slowed the car and imagined what it would be like to live on a street like this. The entire length of road was like a different realm from the surrounding area, just from a change in the light. 

I drove down that same street a few days later, to enjoy the trees again, on my way to the grocery store. It had been raining most of the day. I love the rain. We don’t get a lot of it here, so rainy days seem extra special to me. But rounding the corner and finding a rainbow is even more special. And that is exactly what happened. 

Later that afternoon, my youngest, who’d been battling RSV, sat in my lap while we watched the rain making concentric circles in the backyard puddles and the songbirds gobbling up the birdseed we put out for them. I told my son how one of my favorite things to do is swim in the rain. It's so peaceful to be underwater watching the droplets ripple around you and you don’t have to worry about getting wet. We imagined swimming in the puddles. I wondered if fish felt like I did about the rain.

This week my kids are making Thanksgiving cards, using the neighbor’s bright red tree as inspiration. It’s the only tree on our street that really changes colors in a glorious way, and it happens to sit right in sight of our living room window. I’ve painted it a time or two before too. 

Even though we seem to be heading into the holidays with unwanted germy guests, I am so thankful that the absence of nature study hasn’t kept us from being able to see. We might be quarantined at home, but we are filled with joy and expectation with every migrating bird and tumbling leaf that crosses our path. We don’t need a nature trail to look for the glory of God. He’s showing off right outside our very front door.

Psalm 148:7-13

Praise the Lord from the earth,

You great sea creatures and all the depths;

Fire and hail, snow and clouds;

Stormy wind, fulfilling His word;

Mountains and all hills;

Fruitful trees and all cedars;

Beasts and all cattle;

Creeping things and flying fowl;

Kings of the earth and all peoples;

Princes and all judges of the earth;

Both young men and maidens;

Old men and children.

Let them praise the name of the Lord,

For His name alone is exalted;

His glory is above the earth and heaven.

Sarah Jonnalagadda 2023