Everything has its wonders,
even darkness and silence,
and I learn, whatever state I may
be in, therein to be content.
~Helen Keller

Oh, what a glory doth the world put on
These peerless, perfect autumn days
There is a beautiful spirit of gladness everywhere,
The wooded waysides are luminous
With brightly painted leaves;
The forest-trees with royal grace have donned
Their gorgeous autumn tapestries;
And even the rocks and fences are broidered
With ferns, sumachs and brilliantly tinted ivies.
But so exquisitely blended are the lights and shades,
The golds, scarlets and purples, that no sense is wearied;
For God himself hath painted the landscape.

The hillsides gleam with golden corn;
Apple and peach-trees bend beneath
Their burdens of golden fruit.
The golden-rods, too, are here, whole armies of them,
With waving plumes, resplendent with gold;
And about the wild grapes, purple and
Fair and full of sunshine,
The little birds southward going
Linger, like travelers at an Inn,
And sip the perfumed wine.
And far away the mountains against the blue sky stand
Calm and mysterious, like prophets of God,
Wrapped in purple mist.
~Helen Keller

I was fortunate enough while working as an educator to be able to teach THE MIRACLE WORKER which is a play written about Helen Keller. Helen had become deaf and blind in infancy and Anne Sullivan was hired by her family to come to their home in Alabama to be her teacher. The inspiring story is one that I believe everyone should read. I have the utmost respect and admiration for these two remarkable women and find it so amazing that a blind woman could write such a beautiful and accurate description of Autumn! The poem was written in 1898.

In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. ~Isaiah 28:19  ✝

**Image of autumn leaves which look almost like fallen jewels upon the ground was via Pinterest