It’s so easy to see Autumn as a time of loss, trees lose their leaves, gardens lose their bounty, the sky loses its light.

And we gnash and moan and don’t see the gifts being given.

I’m as bad as anyone. WHAT????? No swimming outdoors???? It’s my favorite thing in the whole world. But really, I get to swim indoors, that’s pretty astounding.

The beauty of the dark is coming; but at the moment, we have the beauty of the places in between. In between the light and the dark. In between the warmth and the cold. In between this world and the next.

In between this president and the next. We have to show up now, and we have to show up then. This land was made for you and me and we’d better damned start acting like that. When I say you, I mean all my friends of color, all my women friends, all my queer friends, all my friends with disabilities — physical and mental, all my friends of every tradition, all my male friends, and all those people I have not yet had a chance to love all the people who have not yet had the, shall we say, opportunity to love me.

Here’s Life. Here’s Love. Here’s Peace. All in the places in between.