What an absolutely beautiful morning today. I love fall! Winter also. Not much of a fan of spring other than the flowers blooming, and I don’t like summer at all. The older I get the less tolerant I am of the heat and more tolerant I am of the cold. I think that may be backwards from how most people get as they age but it shouldn’t surprise anyone that I am quirky in that regard too. LOL
Something about the changing leaves and the cooler weather that just puts a spring in my step, pep in my soul. I find myself singing along with the radio at the top of my lungs, waking up in a good mood (which in the summer does not happen) and feeling good about life.
Some of my favorite memories involve fall. Chris and Andy as little boys piling up the leaves and then jumping into the pile. My birthday and several of my family members have fall birthdays. Sunflowers are abundant, chili and potato soup and stew become staples and the quilt on the bed is just the right weight . The bright lights lighting up the High School football field visible from my house a few miles away and if you listen closely you can hear the crowd. The smell of wood burning in fireplaces. And every time the yard is mowed thinking maybe that will be the last time for the season and I can spend the lawn mowing money on something else.
When the boys were little I always dreaded Halloween though because as creative as I am,it doesn’t translate down to my hands. I can’t paint or draw or sew. I can come up with great ideas for things, but have to rely on others to execute them. Arts and Crafts fair make me feel totally inept when I see the talented people who can do that sort of thing. The boys always ended up with those cheesy store bought costumes with the plastic masks with the thin black string to hold them on. Never made it long before I was trying to staple the string back in place. Using makeup instead of a mask was not an option for Andy because he had an aversion to anything being put on his skin. I would have to battle him to put on sunscreen. Seems like every year one of my more creative friends would have some really cool homemade costume for their kid and my kids looked pitiful in comparison. One year Mike decided to get creative and bought Styrofoam to carve a ninja turtle shell out of to attach to the cheesy store bought ninja turtle costume. By the time he got it whittled down to the right shape and painted it looked like a dinner plate painted green. I felt better about myself after that.
A few years ago, I was asked to judge a costume contest that a local nursing home was hosting for school kids. My co-worker/co-judge and I were talking about our experiences and found we shared a common bond in the “hateHalloween because of the costume pressure” experience. Turns out her son had to resort to the store bought, plastic mask variety of costume as well while his friends with creative mothers made costumes that could be used on Broadway! We decided to turn the tables, to have a little “adult revenge” and reward the best costume prizes to the kids with the “my mother can’t sew” costumes. Instead of Raggedy Ann, complete with a wig made from a mop, handmade pantaloons, and rosy red cheeks we awarded the best dressed girl costume to a Walmart Little Mermaid costume. Instead of the Superhero clad boy with cool boots and tights and a cape and a piece of phone book taped to the costume as if he had changed in one, we awarded the best dressed boy prize to a little boy with a store bought cheesy Woody from Toy Store Costume, complete with the plastic mask with the cowboy hat painted on it. My co-worker and I wished we could be at the winner’s homes when they arrived with their 1st prize trophies to show their long suffering Halloween challenged mothers.
The young mothers at work busy with all their kids fall activities from football to soccer to band and carnivals fill me with envy and a nostalgic longing for the time in my life when the hustle and bustle of 2 boys and their activities kept me busy and on the go. And when they complain about all the activity and all the late nights and trying to fit everyone’s schedule into their own I want to say, Count your blessings because in the blink of an eye your kids will be grown up and on their own and you’ll find yourself longing for those days.
But it’s not all envy. It’s pretty nice to be able to snuggle back under the covers on a cool fall weekend morning and not have any place you have to be or anything you have to do for someone else. Or to go home from work and eat a bowl of stew or chili when you want to, not when you are expected to have dinner on the table while watching your favorite tv show in the living room in your bathrobe. Or to be able to go for a walk when you feel like it, not having to plan on when you can carve out that alone time in the frenzy of kids and activities.
I remember when I was a little girl my mom would always have music playing, mostly country. There was one song I remember about the seasons of life. I asked my mom about it and she described to me that the summer represented the childhood years, the carefree days of summer; then the spring was when you were an adult and bringing life into the world and the days of child rearing, then the fall when your kids were grown and you had this time to yourself to do what you wanted to do , your time she said, and then the winter when you had lived your life and had a whole treasure trove of memories to take out and dust off and keep you company as your body slowed down and your friends began to die and your grandkids began to have kids and you look around and realize you are the oldest one in the family at gatherings. My mom looked forward to all these seasons and she was in the latter part of the fall of her life when she died. She lived a fulfilled, happy life. She had no regrets other than that she would not be there to grow old with my dad and see her grandchildren grow up and marry and have families of their own.
And now my favorite season, fall is upon us and it is in this season of my life that I find myself. The summer of my youth and the spring of my life are past and what remains are wonderful memories, tons of knowledge gained through life experience, 2 amazing young men that I brought into this world. I feel peaceful and good about my life. I feel happy and fulfilled and truly good about the place I’m at in my life’s journey. I am ready to experience fully the autumn of my life.
Eccl. 3:1 There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth.
And years from now as I enter into the “winter of my life” I want to look back at a life well lived. A life that made a difference in this world. My favorite quote comes to mind.
You are born into this world and will probably never know to whose prayer your life is the answer. Oswald Chambers
And speaking of season” ing “ Matthew 1:3"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.
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