October; 1863; William Trost Richards; American; Source: National Gallery of Art
CEFR Level B2-C1
I see hues of yellow, chartreuse, and green. It fills my vision and stills my body. Languidly, I notice a squirrel performing a high-wire act across a thin, bouncy branch. A bird flutters in the shadows. A tulip tree cone torpedoes to the ground. No, that angle was wrong. I can just barely be bothered to turn my head enough to see a robin. I didn’t know they dove from branches like that.
The hypnosis of the leaves pulls me and my head falls against the top of the chair. The sky is blue, that blue that I only see in autumn. The air is that temperature that you can’t feel. A kettle of vultures is high above. A smaller pale-colored bird circles within and around their spirals. A hawk, maybe? Another dark bird cuts across on a higher air current moving in a straight line until it disappears in the west. This is not a vulture. The wings have a sharp angle and the tail is chisel blunt. Perhaps it’s a falcon. The maybe-hawk continues circling into and out of the vultures’ uniform pattern. A near collision. The smaller bird rises and continues its circling. Air traffic controllers would be proud. Or maybe their anxiety would spike. That maybe-hawk can’t seem to find an air current to settle into like the vultures have.
All this thinking about bird identification and air traffic control has broken the power of the leaves. I remember that I should be studying Koine Greek vocabulary. But flashcards are boring! And this is peaceful. I stay, my insides calm, until I finish drinking a mug of spiced tea. Then I sigh, take one more look at the trees and sky, and return to responsibility.
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When autumn comes, I always get the urge to read The Hobbit.
I thought about turning this into a spiritual metaphor. I wondered how to use this to introduce a sermon topic. I thought about the spiritual meaning of rest and how my Pentecostal experiences rarely included rest at church despite many services with dim lights, repetitive music, and a speaker urging us to rest in the Lord. When I felt rest, it is impossible to tell if it was from “the presence of God” or because I was exhausted from 16-hour days and the dim room and gentle sounds gave me a reason to rest my head on the back of the chair and close my eyes.
Maybe I’m not trying hard enough to verbalize an application. Or maybe the mystery, the magic, the miraculous, is that you can’t manipulate yourself into a feeling of peace. Maybe all you can do is allow your senses to work and allow yourself to respond. Maybe the wonder of 10 minutes on an October afternoon isn’t that I took a break or had a “quiet time” or tried nature bathing. Maybe the mystery is that I just was and in that being I was gifted a few moments of internal peace.
I hesitate to say that because the natural question from someone seeking relief is, “Well, why don’t I get that gift of a few minutes of peaceful rest?” I don’t know. Any answer I think of - put yourself in situations of delight, be open to the experience - just creates another task for someone already overburdened. Also, I sit outside on plenty of sunny afternoons. Not all of them contain a moment of mystery. So why this day and not on another? I don’t know.
Even though I don’t have answers or definitive conclusions, I still think there is something important, helpful, beneficial about being outside around plants and other nature. If you are able, go outside to a green space today, tomorrow, any day that you can. Don’t be pressured to be like some church people and go “expecting.” Don’t have a plan at all except to exist and take the experience for what it is. This isn’t a time to optimize, be efficient, or meet a goal. It's a time to merely exist and let that be enough. If God is God with Us, then God will be there, too.
November Sings for voice and piano is a gentle protest song reminding us that even the dark and cold months of late autumn have a special beauty. Perfect for fall recitals or teaching how fighting back isn’t always aggressive.
For Voice and Piano
Key: F Major/Bb Major
Vocal Range: Bb3-F5
Time: 00:01:30
Pages in Score: 4
Themes: Autumn/Fall
PDF Download: This is a digital product, so I can't issue a refund. If you experience a problem, please let me know.
This title is also available at JW Pepper and SheetMusicPlus.