Now, I am older and in Australia. Autumn is Lent and Easter here. Advent is a penitential season. So is Lent. Penance. Not much call for that these days is there? Just fast forward and 'forget your regret'. Yet, just the other day, I remembered and was chagrined.

No one else would recall it. No one, but me. Perhaps. I suspect that there are many tendrils on that stray thought. I am hesitant to pull too hard lest I discover what else might surface. Penance. Having the courage to put right what was, or remains, wrong. Making right the relationship wronged. Can it be done decades later? In the 'graced' moment, we can begin.

That's another quality of Autumn. It is a time of hauling in the nets and repairing the damage done in the course of living. There is an Autumn in each day, week, month and year. There is an Autumn in each life. Perhaps the nets will be useful to the next generation.

Or, they may seek to leave the island of our ancient habitation. They may be off to new digs and experiences. Still, they may just be taking the same old people with them into the wider world.

Michael Powell, who would later become one half of the Archers with Emeric Pressburger, undertook his first major project as a director to capture this story, The Edge of the World. Rotten Tomatoes rates it at 100%. It is stunning in its beauty and poignant as a story. The cynic and the slick operator may smirk; but, the thoughtful recognize the signs.

How do we deal with our rash self-assertion or our cowardly failure to be true to who we are? Gently, but firmly. Penance is about a true assessment of what needs to be done. Then, it is also about making amends. Reconciliation is possible even in the face of death and dissolution. Faith, hope and love need not fail. At the 'edge of the world' in the Antipodes, Easter in Autumn reminds us of this.