I’ve noticed through the years that fall and early winter are the favorite times of the year for many people. Perhaps it’s because the seasons have such drastic changes or that our favorite holidays occur during that time. I think that another reason we love this time of the year is that there is a sequence to the seasons that helps us catch our balance from all the chaos, difficulty, grief and labor from the past year. Once October arrives, the sequence of four holidays speeds by – Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year. As we celebrate them the variety of ways we do, we at the same time rebalance our lives. At Halloween, whether we celebrate it or not, we still balance our sense of will (freedom & discipline) in our lives by the very choosing to celebrate or not. We exercise our sense of competence by balancing the cultural with the eternal. The believing in the fact of evil paralleling good is an axiom of life. We willfully and competently choose how we live and what we believe. Thanksgiving – that uniquely American holiday, is a time of sharing love and care for family and friends – to reach out to each other and give of ourselves. Christmas and the incarnation of God in man, the wisdom of God in calling us to Himself so that in faith we may become new and forgiven, and then do his work and will. And New Year – a time to begin again with new purpose and the hope that this New Year will be filled with His grace and mercy as we face a new year of challenges and choices, both good and bad. God walk with us and help us catch our balance in the sequence of the seasons.