At Last, Fall is Here

Autumn is my favorite season. We’re getting away from the heat of summer to cooler temperatures. Beautiful fall colors are beginning to paint the canvas of our daily lives. Chefs everywhere are thinking of ways to surprise us with pumpkin spice.

Fall did not wait for anyone’s approval to step out, and neither must we. Nature has all she needs to lead us on the journey of life. We need look no further.

From a Zen perspective, I believe that this has to do with impermanence being visible. The world changes right in front of us.

buddhism, Rev John Karn, Kwanzaa, Community Rev. John Karn, D.D.September 26, 2026Fall, Seasons, Buddhism

A Renewed Aspiration

We've been told the American Dream is about having more.

A bigger house. A nicer car. More money. More success. More things.

Too often, it has become a life financed by debt and measured by possessions. We spend years working to pay for a lifestyle that leaves us with little time to enjoy the life we were trying to build.

Perhaps it is time to ask a different question.

Summer Time Zen

Summer arrives without argument. It does not announce itself with doctrine, but with cicadas in the trees, birds proudly singing their songs, grass rising after rain, the sunlight and humidity resting on us as if it has nowhere else to be.

In this season, once again, nature is our quiet teacher. So many of us are grasping for spiritual lessons hungrily, when our teacher has been here all along. I call her Mother Earth, or Gaia. She has all the intelligence we need, as her offering to us.