Here we are with only one more day in October, one of my least favorite days of the year. I will turn off the lights and hide away in the basement family room! I did trunk or treat so I already contributed to the demise of healthy teeth in Hempfield Township’s younger population.
Seems like once we hit November everything turns up a notch and life increasingly gets crazy. I am slowly but surely adding things to the calendar.
Amazingly I found Ghoul M&M’s at Ollies so after lunch I made chocolate chip M&M cookies. I am always so disappointed in my chocolate chip cookies. They always turn out flat as a pancake. Someday I’m going to conquer this cookie monster (see what I did there?) and my cookies will be note-worthy!
This is primarily going to be a fall post. I am not generally a fan of fall. It takes away my lovely summer, with bare feet, shorts, flower gardens, no jackets, longer evenings, outside events, bright skies, and sleeping with the windows open.
I dislike the bare, gray trees, dead plants, brown grass, dull rainy days, and cooler temps. But somehow this year has been different. The colors have been vibrant oranges and yellows, red and burgundy. Even the bare branches seem to lift their limbs into the sky, praising and swaying to some unknown song in the wind.
There have never been so many scatterings of leaves clustered on the main roads, intersections, and parking lots. It’s like the Great Designer has turned His focus on all the little, unnoticed nooks and crannies. Everywhere I turn there are bright trees dotting the hillsides, or the neighborhood yards, or the distant mountains, or lining back roads.
The wind blows, and the rain pours, but the leaves cling. At least enough of them to paint the landscape in bright designs. And there are more leaves still on the trees than not. Even in my front yard, though the ground is blanketed in yellows and browns, the Silver Maples above are still full of green and yellow. I need to keep after them – but I will respect the weather and wait for a warmer sunny day.
Every day I drive through town, or out of town, and see the new arrangements of color and pattern. I cannot remember a year that has been so awe-inspiring. I have always felt that come fall, the wind blows, the storms come, and the vibrancy is gone with the wind. This year it lingers, and glimmers, and draws the eyes to every tree and branch and limb and leaf.
Maybe it’s because I am in the fall of life. I am trying to take inspiration from the beauty of the season, knowing that leaving the summer behind and moving toward the winter of life does not mean the end of life. It means that I can share beauty and inspiration to those around – that I have time to slow down and take the changes a little bit at a time, and each change inspires in a different way and provides delight and comfort to those who see the colors. I need to focus on the beauty and inspiration and blessings that are around me and be the best part of the best displays and to give with both hands, arms raised to the sky and feet firmly planted.
I may just love fall, after all! Here are some pictures that inspired me today!
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TOMORROW October 31st is:
National Doorbell Day; Reformation Day; Girl Scout Founder’s Day; National Magic Day; National Knock-Knock Joke Day; National Caramel Apple Day; Halloween.
I’ll watch for the Great Pumpkin – I have very sincere pumpkins (see photo of mums). I also have a doorbell. Not good with jokes. Bud was the king of jokes! I still miss him… Have a lovely Halloween – hope you enjoy the day and aren’t hiding away like me!! God bless…
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