Autumn Reflections

It is deep autumn in the northern hemisphere. The leaves have turned from green to various shades of yellow, gold, brown and red before being felled by the wind and the occasional showers. The crisp morning air hints at the cold winter that is about to come, and the long days of summer have begun to give way to the long hours of darkness in the coming months.

I recently visited the Basilica Minore de La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. The tour guide explained that its main architect, Antoni Gaudi, situated the church to have its main entrance towards the south, thus ensuring that sunlight would penetrate the church in the morning from the east façade that celebrates the Nativity, and in the afternoon from the west façade that commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. Sunrise and sunset; birth and death; creation and destruction.

Gaudi’s personal style as an architect is to reflect the beauty of light and the interesting intricacy of nature. The exterior of Sagrada Familia shows that in various forms, such as birds, animals, fish, flowers and plants. But anyone who visits and only stays outside is missing the point: it is inside that one gets to admire Gaudi’s genius in bringing light into the basilica and making it speak throughout the hours of the day.

Stained glass windows, in various hues of blue and green on the east wall, and in various shades of green, yellow, gold and red on the west wall, filter the sunlight, which then gets reflected into the bleached stone pillars and ceilings. In the mornings therefore, the church is bathed in crisp colors of blue and green, reminiscent of spring and summer. In the afternoons, as the sun prepares to set, the interior of the basilica glows in yellow, orange and red, evoking the colors of autumn and the palette of every sunset.

Autumn calls to mind the twilight years of one’s life; whether one is already there or still decades away, it reminds one of the certainty that as the sun sets in the west, so does every person face the inevitability of departing from this world. And yet, far from inducing a morbid reflection of an impending doom, the beautiful colors of autumn invite us to celebrate life as thus far lived – for every gold leaf a victory achieved, for every brown a lesson learned, for every red a trial hurdled.

With this comes the realization that life is but a series of sunrises and sunsets, light and darkness and light illuminating yet again. What matters then is to make every moment count, to make each day matter, so that when one’s final autumn and sunset comes, it will be a celebration of a life well lived in the service of something greater than one’s self.

“As long as autumn lasts I won’t have enough hands, canvas or colours to paint the beautiful things that I see.” – Vincent van Gogh, Letter to Theo van Gogh, Tuesday, 25 September 1888, Arles