HEEDING THE CRY OF THE RAM'S HORN AS AUTUMN CHANGES TO WINTER

In the changing of the seasons of time, to see the rivers and seas change with these seasons, to feel a chill in the lake water where there was warmth in the waves before.

To dig your bare feet into sands that are no longer hot sands but are sands of coolness in the shade of a tree that in autumn now has leaves of color. Multi-colored leaves of reds, yellows, and gold, no longer greens. A leaf like a dead spirit that has fallen from a tree to warn us as with the sound of the ram's horn that winter coldness will soon be upon us.

To feel the coolness of a wind that used to be but a warm summer breeze, winds speeding over the tops of blue lake waters bending sails of boats, tipping them dangerously on their sides, no longer having stability. Soon to see water turn into ice, a cold stone covered with the lace of a snowflake, icy breakers of solid frozen water that once flowed as streams, to be icebergs or snowcapped mountain tops.

Instead of swimming, to be ice skating, taking snowshoes and hiking on the whiteness of icy beaches, skiing with long poles digging into white mounds as you gain speed on the ice but without turning wheels.

Sledding not on horseback, instead in the cabin of a sleigh, steering a sled runner to avoid hitting snowmen built by children on the sides of roads. Snowmen with charcoal black eyes and carrots for noses, snowmen padded from large snowballs, guarding as warriors the safety of snow forts made of ice as bricks, a place to hide from a stray flying snowball thrown in fun.

From summer to autumn to winter, from green to red to yellow, from a child to a teen to an adult, from a girl to a wife to a mother. Times are changing, we are no longer who we used to be.

Spinning crimson colored wool into jackets and scarves, hats, as women of valor we prepare, a time to feel woman-made warmth even when it is cold.

Lighting candles of hot flames to toast into warmness the thawing cold fingertips.

Sleeping in beds of goose-down filled comforters, no longer in sheets. A time to drink hot chocolate beverages, to toast our cups to the richness of the will-be warmth, safe in the preparation of the coming of the future of a snowy day.