It's autumn at last. The months of intense summer heat are behind us, and we can now look forward to more temperate weather. The sun is setting earlier and earlier. Pretty soon we'll have a real live cool spell (Houston style).

Sadly, we don't get the "kaleidoscopic palette" of autumn our northern neighbors enjoy. But then, we don't get the kind of cold they experience. From now through May and even into June of next year we are about to enjoy our nicest time of year. Most of the outdoor festivals will take place in the next few months. To my personal delight convertible weather is definitely here.

There is a rhythm to life. It rotates from hemisphere to hemisphere, and differs within different parts of the same hemisphere, but it is a rhythm nonetheless: birth, growth, aging, death.

We, of course, follow the same pattern within our own lives. We are born, grow into maturity, age, and eventually (please God, after a long time) die. There are bright, sunny times and dark, cloudy times. We can see the storms coming sometimes, but can't predict them with any more accuracy than the weathermen can predict exactly where a hurricane will land. And after they pass destruction and chaos lie in the wake, and we are left to rebuild.

It is no accident that so many Jewish holidays are tied into nature, because our lives are tied to nature. Of the major holidays, only Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur have no direct relation to nature. Sukkot celebrates the fall harvest. Chanukah is set during the winter solstice. Pesach is the beginning of the planting season. And Shavuot celebrates the early summer harvest.

Even in modern times when we have so much science and technology, we still depend on the patterns of nature to shape our lives. From the clothes we wear to the foods we eat, the seasons give structure and form to human existence, as we respond to what is going on around us in nature.

Our holidays are reminders that for all the control we have over our world, ultimately we are dependent on natural forces over which we have no control.

As we emerge from celebrating our holy season, which concludes with Sukkot, as we enjoy the time of year when our weather is so pleasant, we would do well to remember that all this is a blessing. And how grateful we should be for it!