THE JOY OF AUTUMN

As I was beginning the pre writing process for this Thought my mind started to connect the yearly harvest we celebrate on Thanksgiving Day with the harvest Kathleen and I seem to be reaping during the Autumn of our lives.

The seed which was planted our first evening together, which included me not being able to find the Los Angeles Forum and then watching a Harlem Globetrotter’s performance, has been lovingly nurtured, blossomed into fullness and continues to provide us with an abundance of daily love. We have come to know each other very well, on some days it might even seem too well, but on most days it proves to be the key to being able to help one another through our down days and brings joint celebration to our good days. As we tend our garden of love we seem to move about with more caution and a bit more slowly our appreciation for one another strengthens and sends its roots more deeply.

Our planting and nourishing has expanded and widened where once it was contained within four walls and included six new plants which, although they sprang from common seed, varied in almost every way. Those six plants have generated an additional 20 wonderful plants which have at this writing started gardens of their own which number 4. We do not have current flowers from all over the world, but as DNA tests begin to demonstrate the tracing of our pedigree covers every continent on the globe. If anyone ever needed evidence for the individuality of the spirits which are housed in our bodies having a profound influence on our characters, our family would make a wonderful example. In this wonderful day of harvest we now dot the western states of the United States of America and some have even been blown off to distant states. If variety is the key to happiness then Kathleen and I can be counted among the most happy.

The years of toiling with the sweat of our brows seemed to barely keep us sheltered, clothed and fed, but in the end the practice of frugality, doing without, careful budgeting, generous parents and benevolent employment benefits filled our pantries and left us with and abundant harvest and a horn of plenty running over during our autumn years. Kathleen provided for much of the resources needed to keep our children properly dressed for school through ironing and babysitting, even though they sometimes felt alterations were necessary to please their peers. When our boys started to leave to serve missions for the church, she went to work full time at the University of Nevada in various capacities which paid for their missions. After working by my side in Colombia for three years she went to work in retail for a while and then settled into working as an office manager for a law office. (I would be amiss if I didn't mention the help the Tim and Jill Dyches provided us while we were serving in Colombia) I think you can begin to catch the vision why in spite of my career of 50 year in the Church Education System, we have enough and to spare in our day of harvest.

It took our six immediate offspring a bit of time to adjust when we announced a year ago that our days of travel had ended. It is also interesting to watch the faces of friends as they are extolling the wonders of their most recent adventure and want us to join them on the next one when we tell them our traveling days have ended. However, Kathleen and I feel that we have been blessed with sufficient seeing of the world that our memory bank is now filled with journeys which amount to a marvelous harvest of words and pictures. We seldom see a documentary when we are unable to exclaim ‘we have been there.’ Our book of memories includes besides the voluminous travel we have done in the USA, a month long trip to the Holy Lands, an extended tour of the Book of Mormon Lands, three years living in Bogota, Colombia, and a visit to our roots in the British Isles. I spent several years living in Mexico which I probably shouldn't bring up, since I have never taken Kathleen back to my mission area. Our journals and albums are filled to capacity with memories of travels and now we bask in the harvest of wonderful memories.

Although Kathleen seems to have retained her pre mortal testimony, values and character, leaving her with little reason to kick against the pricks, my life has followed more along the path of testimony and truth rising from the fires of doubt. There were times when having a certain knowledge of one truth did not automatically make all connecting truths valid in Kathleen’s soul, but it always seemed a short journey to joining all the dots. My personal journey has been line upon line, here a little there a little, but as the days grow shorter I have arrived at a place of peace where I know how little I know. We are grateful for the fullness which the gospel of Jesus the Christ and His Restored Church have brought to our lives. We are content that the Lord has blessed us with opportunities and privileges which have filled our experience basket to overflowing and helped us accomplish the purposes for which we were placed here. We are grateful that as the shadows of harvest time lengthen we have been given stewardships in the kingdom which fit our waning capabilities and help us to still contribute and feel validated.

Autumn has always been Kathleen’s favorite season of the year, even though I traditionally have preferred spring. There is little doubt that when winter’s snows cover our final resting place and we are in a better place, I will look fondly to the time we spent this wonderful autumn of our lives hand in hand.

THOUGHTS FOR A SABBATH DAY – WILLIAM L. RILEY

EDITED BY – KATHLEEN W. RILEY