Family

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It is just about Fall, or, as some people call it, Autumn. It is not quite here but I can smell it in the air and the weather is starting to turn chilly in the afternoons as the days grow shorter and nights come on more quickly. By 7 PM the sun is well into its decent in the West where as during Summer, it would still be up there, a calmer shine but a shine none-the-less, reminding us we have a few more hours to play outside under the safety and comfort of its warm rays. I love the changing of the seasons! I love the time in between each one as my world prepares to welcome the onset of a new weather system while it slowly lets go of the old one. Change in general wasn’t always so easy for me to accept with such excitement. But after a while, I understood that it’s just like saying a long good bye to an old friend while waiting for a new one to come along.

Fall means so many things. On a general scale, it means light jackets and long pants. It means Halloween and Thanksgiving and preparing for the Christmas season. It means baking Gingerbread and Soup and Chili. It means Football, Pumpkins and Corn. For high-school students it means the start of a new School year and getting ready for Homecoming. For me, it means tucking away the memories from summer- the kids playing in the pool, laying outside in the sun with a book at nap-time, and catching fireflies after dark.. And it means dreaming of making new ones like burying ourselves in the leaves, picking pumpkins and going on hay rides. It means ending my love affair with warm weather and flowers and my vegetable garden and beginning a new one with crisp leaves, apples and sweaters.


How blessed I feel to live in a state where we experience all four seasons with the weather patterns and nature that perfectly coincide with each! The season of Fall around here allows for the beautiful canvas for God to paint a moving picture of just one part of the essence of His creation-the flowers dying off, the lush green grass turning to a yellowy straw and the leaves changing from green to a myriad of yellows, oranges and reds before turning brown and falling from the trees. A perfect example of the cycle of life. In each stage, nature has its own unique beauty and value and we are so blessed to experience its wonder every few months when the seasons change.


Each transition is God’s way of providing us with a fresh start, new beginnings, new feelings and more reasons to thank Him, more dreams to dream, more plans to make. It’s transforming our world for us, to help us remember His infinite power and the amazing beauty He has blessed us with to enjoy. Teaching my children about these changes, the reasons for them and how it applies to our lives is going to be an exciting adventure.


Ah, Fall! Like I do for the coming of Spring after a long Winter, I am anxiously awaiting this shift in nature’s cycle. Long ago, I was slightly afraid of the change of seasons. I didn’t want to let go of the familiarity of the old one and worry about what was to come with the new one. I wanted to hang on, tightly wrapping myself in a blanket of denial as I realized it would happen with or without me. Slowly and slowly I began to wake up to the idea that life had so much meaning even during these changes. Slowly and slowly I began to see that I would be blessed by letting go and welcoming what was to come. Like with so many other things, I was always afraid of letting go and moving on. But here I am, happily saying goodbye to Summer as I anxiously wait for Fall to come along.

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