Autumn

Fall begins - leaves become colourful and reflect in a large pond in the middle of Leipzig
A typical street in the city - apartment buildings from the Gründerzeit of the late 19th century with cobblestone streets - no trace of Fall here...

Fall is unfolding now. Today is a wonderful clear day at the end of September. The sunlight now has that typical soft golden character I never see in Texas, and every morning there is fog, since the ground is still warm and the air is cooling rapidly.
The problem is, the days are getting so short. What do you do here to fight that? You start going to events - concerts, cinema, plays, markets, and you make plans for Christmas. Fall here is full of memory days - Reformation Day, Day of German Unity, Day of Prayer and Repentence, Ertnedankfest - where you give thanks for the harvest.
After all the outdoor activity of Summer, Fall seems a good time to reflect with candles and tea. But this is also a dangerous time - cold, dark, and damp - what do people with depressive tendencies do? This is a good time for us to be alert for ways to help others, which may also help us make it through these days better.

little red rose

beautiful blue Morning Glories - I brought the seeds with me from Texas in April.

A poem I never understood:

"O little red rose, Man lies in direst need! Man lies in deepest pain! I would rather be in heaven!"

This is the first half in translation from Des Knaben Wunderhorn.

Just after we had buried my mother, my brother bent over the fresh grave and, with tears in his eyes, selected one little red rose to carry back home in remembrance.

Instantly I understood this poem.

How beautiful is the little rose - yet fragile and soon withered.

How could it be that true love and beauty could go on without decaying? Is truth, love, and beauty so destined?

Fresh figs with Blue Bell vanilla ice cream - I always remember my grandmother in Hearne and the figs from her tree.

Lantana - speckles of orange and yellow - I remember my other grandmother and this flower in her front yard.

The sound of gravel crunching under the tires - and I always got ready for a big long hug from my grandmother as she picked me up and kissed me.

These are all part of the little red rose - reminding us of exclusion and embrace as we look forward to the end of exclusion.

summer smiles surprised as time walks by

I like street cafés here. Leipzig has many. They let you people watch, so you see lives go by - wide, thin, tall, short, well-groomed, yawn-boring, and knock-down good-looking. How much of this is voyeuristic or simply part of learning to understand the nature of life?

Saturday evening I wanted to go to an open-air concert of the Gewandhaus Orchestra - one of the oldest ensembles in the world. Just before the concert began, it started raining, so the event was moved into the concert hall. Immediately the 2,000 people gathered began streaming to the other side of the square to be the first into the hall. We, with our wine and beer in hand, sought a street café on the side-line and just observed the chaos. Since one of the guys in our party was the public relations director for this orchestra, I had an inside angle on the whole event. Since the hall did not seat 2,000, we decided to forgo the event and sought a tapas bar instead. After the concert all the orchestra musicians came to the tapas bar also, so we still had some skewed participation in the event, and we did a lot of people watching.

I also watch the leaves - fall is starting, but summer is still here. It is sunny, highs in the upper 70s (25 C), and yet the leaves are turning. Reminds me of a German poem "Sommer lächelt, erstaunt und matt in dem sterbenden Gartentraum" (Summer smiles surprised and drooping in the dying garden dream - my own translation). This does not happen in Texas, but in Texas we do not sit in street cafés and watch the people saunter by. And in Texas the leaves fall in a day or two, instead of in a month or two.

Yet I enjoy this - it gives me the illusion of standing away from the stream observing life passing by in many others, though I actually do continue to participate in this passing.

These thoughts help me when I feel overwhelmed by the passing by of life in my own existence.