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76 maconmagazine.com A s summer transitions to autumn during this challenging year for our world, I am pondering the seasons and their reasons. Think with me, won't you? Chlorophyll in leaves makes them green and absorbs the sun's light. Inside these clean, green containers are the factories that produce food for the plants as well as oxygen for our world. The hot, high summer sun — as well as the thunderstorms of Southern summers — create conditions for those factories to work overtime. Aren't you oh-so grateful for the bounty, shade and oxygen produced by our world's green vegetation? Isn't it comforting to think that even rain has its positive purpose in the active season of summer? As temperatures cool into the fall season, those leaf factories shut down. The leaves' resulting food reduction is actually what creates hardwoods' brilliant hues in autumn. Wouldn't we do well to take a lesson from the leaves — purposing to live radiantly in times of scarcity? Wouldn't we be well served to ponder how challenges in supply can produce brilliance? After all, creativity and innovation are so often born from challenge. As each autumn season persists, the splendor of autumn leaves dulls as the leaves are starved of food, die and fall. Even fall and death is not wasted in nature's economy, however. In our own lives, wouldn't it be wise to practice making our inevitable falls and losses useful? How, you might ask? In nature, the leaves' decomposition creates ground nutrients so the new plants of spring have more fertile soil in which to take root. How can each of us mine the wisdom from our falls and losses? Perhaps most importantly, how can we each invest that hard- won wisdom in the next generation so that they have greater opportunity to thrive? To be sure, especially over the last 18 months or so, trials can seem dark on every side. It can seem we are all facing varying degrees of heat, storms, scarcity, supply challenges, death and loss. The beauty, however, is that we can choose our response. We can take heart. We can embrace the peace of nature. We can intentionally search for and amplify the gifts of every season — even these challenging ones. Join me, won't you? LESSONS FROM NATURE » How can I use the storms and heat I encounter in life to fuel new life and opportunity? » How can I bring color and beauty into scarcity? » How can I see challenges in supply as opportunities for creativity and innovation? » How can I mine the wisdom from falls and losses? » How can I pay forward the wisdom I've learned to the next generation? » How can I search for and amplify the gifts of this season of my life? Dr. Shannon Terrell Gordon leads Macon's River Edge Behavioral Health and River Edge Foundation. Shannon is a researcher, author, speaker and teacher to help each person live his or her best life and to help leaders make the most meaningful impact possible. Follow her on Instagram with #drshannonsays. Contact her at sgordon@river-edge.org. SHANNON SAYS SEASONS AND REASONS BY DR. SHANNON TERRELL GORDON Excellence in Education, Since 1903 St. Peter Claver Catholic School 133 Ward Street, Macon 478.743.3985 spccatholicschool.org