Rainbow at L's bend

It's already September - the Season of Creation and of harvesting, and the turning of seasons. In many ways summer is slowly, inevitably slipping away. Yes, it is still warm, but the sun is setting that bit earlier, and rising that bit later; leaves are reddening, and summer blooms are either shedding petals, or enjoying their last hurrah. On Saturday I returned home from my retreat: eight days of solitude and slowing down with God... Prayer, and daily walks in the surrounding woods, reading, blackberry picking... and time simply spent sitting and gazing at the view from my cabin. 

As I prepared to leave Llannerchwen, I thanked God for the gift and grace of the week, and said - not goodbye, but - farewell to this place of encounter, healing and renewal. Farewell to the place; but not to the One with whom I had been all week: God, I knew, would be with me on the journey home, and already waiting for me when I arrived. God would be with me in Sunday's Eucharist, and in the gathered community... in my work, and news and catching-up, and my wild, benignly neglected garden... and in all the people and the places which would fill this new month.

Yesterday was a day of heavy showers interspersed with sunshine. And in the evening, as a shower ended, I looked up, saw intense, brilliant sunlight against a still-leaden sky, and knew... this was 'rainbow light'. And yes, there it was, soaring and shimmering high above L's bend, linking heaven and earth as surely as the magnolia with the laburnum! God's fidelity and presence, and everlasting covenant, etched across the sky for several minutes... A gentle blessing, and, from deep within I heard... the Lord your God is with you wherever you go (Joshua 1:9).

And thus begins a new month, filled with a reminder of presence and promise. However your September has started, may you too know blessings, and that God is with you, wherever you may go.