Autumnal equinox……

I react viscerally to fall – Webster says this means my reaction “proceeds from instinct rather then intellect”.

There were times  when I loved fall:  when I was young I relished the start of the school year with all its possibilities; when my children were young I loved the shorter cooler days that brought them inside for the evening to the family dinner table.  As they grew and their lives became more complex,

when a new matchbox car…

-I’m so glad I saved them!!!-

or a favorite birthday cake…

was no longer enough.  When dropping them off for school for the first day became dropping them off until the next holiday –  fall became for me a time of uncertainty, with a frisson of perpetually impending change.

Although walking onto a college campus, feeling the almost imperceptible change in the air, or watching withered leaves fall from a tree can still trigger that vague feeling of unease,

I have come full circle –  I am delighted by fall once again!

A time to harvest apples from the orchard…

and rhubarb…

to share in the cooking and eating of meals…

a time to celebrate the changes of life: 

a new marriage…

a promotion…

a time to draw together with loved ones,

a time to reflect on blessings of the past, to savor each minute of the day, and look forward with faith to the future.