Shade Tree Wisdom 9/23/10

Welcome, the first day of fall.

I was just wondering this morning as I thought of geese flying over at night in my Wisconsin boyhood whether one of the speeches they were exchanging was one saying, “Are we there yet?” What do you think?

The beauty of the fall colors may not be as intense here as in the north but the air is just a trifle cooler, so walking was pleasant, and a cold front is promised in the next several days. One blessing of this coming front is that it tends to keep any hurricane activity farther south, or steers it elsewhere, away from the Texas coast.

But soon the Whooping Cranes will arrive to the Aransas reserve to spend their winter. The people who keep count hope they will see an increase in the flock size again, an encouraging sign.
The time of migration reminds me of the Arctic Tern, which winters in the Arctic, then flies 14,000- miles to summer in the Antarctic. What a distance. William Cullen Bryant wrote “To A Waterfowl”. In it, this stanza,

“He who from zone to zone,
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,
In the long way that I must tread alone,
Will guide my steps aright”.

Reminds us there is a Hand here that directs it all, and cares.

I believe Nehemiah, in rehearsing the history of God’s Way with His people in their 40 year trek, points out that “For forty years You sustained them in the desert; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out, nor did their feet become swollen”. Neh. 9,21.

Another migration is underway here on the coast. White shrimp, that spent the spring and summer in the marshes rimming the bays, begin a migration. They move from the protection of the marshes where they grew from larvae into juveniles, eventually to the Gulf, where they spawn and the cycle begins again, for tide and current push the eggs back into the marshes.
But white shrimp lead a tough life. They are not good at evading predators, so they move in clusters, fish feed on them from below, birds snatch a meal from above. Many survive to grow and finally become your dinner at Babins.

And just by the way, fishermen who know this find some serious fishing activity in such situations also.

And so the Fall begins, with the change of seasons work takes more of a place in lives, summer picnics are behind us, school and college get our attention, and in it all is God, for the Christian always the center of life. He remains “The faithful God, eternal.” Praise His Holy Name for providing all that we take so granted, but that goes on on a regular basis because God so ordered it.

St. Paul describes it. “What may be known about God is plain to them, for God has made it plain to them.” The Creation is His handiwork.

GPD 9/23/10