Change sure is in the air.

The leaves here, all ablaze in their surrender, let go and soar.

They say it’s going to be an easier winter this year, at least that’s what the neighbours here say, those who take their horse and buggies when they head into town. Those who move at a different, slower pace, who see the signs all around them.

Mrs. Gingrich, she said that her strawberry plants are bearing a second, late fall crop, an unexpected, unheard of thing.

And all those kind folks with the horse and buggies, the Mennonites, they’ve noticed how there aren’t as many walnuts this year in these parts, which they surmise that an easier winter must be coming, as the trees know the squirrels won’t need to store up their usual warehouses.

And, they all say, when the fall trees blaze especially bright, the winter will be especially easy, as if the trees, even in their dying and letting go, are celebrating all that is still to come.

But this year’s Farmer’s Almanac fiercely disagrees with all our horse and buggy neighbour folk. The old almanac’s calling for “bone-ceiling cold and loads of snow” all across the midwest and up the east coast.

Riding my bike last night through the wood’s carpet of golden leaves, a whisper of leaves falling now and then around me, I couldn’t stop thinking of what Mrs. Gingrich and the Mennonites keep saying:

It’s going to be an easier winter this year.

After so many hard years, actually a whole string of years that have felt like one long hard winter, I know whose word I am going to take. And I know what kind of winter I am actually going to make.

It’s going to be an easier winter this year because the candles come out now, the blankets come out now, the books come out now.

The more your eyes focus on God, the more your life fills with peace.
The more you live in the Word, the more you have words to write a story worth living.

It’s going to be an easier winter this year because the tried and true traditions will hold us and the new ones will ignite us and this is the truest story I know:

The more your eyes focus on God, the more your life fills with peace.

The more you sit with Jesus, the more worry doesn’t sit with you.

The more you live in the Word, the more you have words to write a story worth living.

As the leaves fall and one season changes into the next, I tell myself:

Wherever you prepare, prepare to be less stressed.

Things get a bit easier, wherever you get things in order.

And I think I keep returning to this because I’m reading a book on calming chaos and making time for what matters and that’s what I read: “Plan on Fridays.” Plan at the end of the week!

Plan at the end of the week, for the next week… plan at the end of the month, for the next month…. plan at the end of one season, for the next season.

What do you most want the next season to hold, for your soul, for your people, for your one holy life?

And I think: What do I want this next season, this winter, this holiday, Christmas season to hold — more than simply holding Jesus, and letting Him hold us?

I can testify:

Planning at the end of the week, the month, the season, let’s you then start right away, ahead of things, first thing on Monday, on the first of the month, first thing, on the brink of a new season.

Instead of using the precious fresh energy of a fresh beginning having to plan ahead, you can already be ahead.

I confess, I am really not at all so sure about any notion of the scarcity of walnuts and the hoarding patterns of squirrels indicating how cold the wind will blow in a couple of weeks? But this I do know:

As the leaves are falling off the lit trees, ending one season, it’s time to think about preparing for the next season, time to think about another lit tree, a tree that can grow up in our hearts into a blazing star, a tree from the “shoot [that] will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.” – Isaiah 11:1.

When leaves start to scatter across the lawns, I start to gather what I need for our Christmas tree, the Jesse Tree ornaments, the stories in the Word that tell the story of our messy, rescued family tree, and how, in King Jesus, we’ve been grafted into the safe and healing family tree of God.

They say it’s going to be an easier winter, and it will be, it really will be, with us preparing to simply ease our days and focus into the safe arms of God.

When we set aside time to prepare, we set ourselves up for good times.

I confess, I really have no idea how the squirrels are preparing for the winter, but I’m committing to it: It’s going to be an easier winter this year, because all our trees can speak of hope and joy and peace, and I’m preparing for our Christmas tree being a sign that it’s going to be good for all eternity.

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When our holidays are about Staying in the Story, being with Him — Peace leads us — and we can have ourselves The Greatest little Christmas yet!