October is one of my favorite months. Days are often still sunny and warm, but cool nights are frequent, the air is less humid, and the leaves are changing color all around.
Most especially, I love the wind. I appreciate how the wind blows through the cottonwoods behind my home, making a sound like a rushing river. I appreciate the way the wind refreshes the air, bites at my face, pushes me along my path, and generally makes me feel alive. And strong autumn winds, like those experienced this week, remind me of the fact that the year is drawing to an end, that winter is approaching, that my favorite holidays are near. To me, wind signifies change.
Likewise, autumn itself is a time of change. In an agricultural community like ours, autumn is harvest time, when the crops are brought in. For months, the fields are filled with crops that gradually grow, ripen, and dry. Then, overnight, the field is harvested. I appreciate walking down the road in front of my home and looking across a field that, until that day, had obscured my view to the horizon, but now provides a clear view not just of the horizon, but of the shape of the land. Tree rows stand out more clearly. Sunrises and sunsets take on a different hue and significance, are somehow more dramatic. Pockets of wetland are suddenly visible again. Flocks of migrating birds are seen feasting in the newly cut fields. The world is entirely changed.
One of my favorite words associated with this concept of change is repent. The Greek word for repentance is metanoeo, which suggests a change of mind, knowledge, spirit, or breath. Thus, to repent means to change the way we love, think, know, and live. As a college professor, I invite my students to change (repent) each day, adding new ideas, knowledge, and skills to better align themselves with the standards of their chosen professions. And I invite myself, in response to invitations I feel from God, to repent each day: striving to align my ways of living, knowing, and being with the patterns and standards I have learned from God. Autumn and the changes it brings remind me a little more pointedly to engage in daily repentance.
So I love October because I am reminded of the path I am on to daily change to become more aligned with God. As I do so, I hope I am becoming a better person who joyfully interacts with the world around me and in turn makes it a little better place. And just as I prompt my students, I ask you, the reader to consider: What do you need to change? How will you repent today?
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