This is the mood I'm in today.
Bring it.
It's 35 degrees up here in NW Indiana, and I believe I can rest now, knowing that outdoor pursuits are laid to rest for the time being.
For some reason - I always feel in limbo at this time of year.
Fall - absolutely my favorite time of the year - but I'm left wondering if I should start pursuing indoor activities, or continue weeding, etc.
You think it's all over outside, and then it's not - just kidding - it is - wait, nope...
That's how it seems to me!
Do I put the hoe away or not!?
Make up your mind!
With a frost due tonight - I can say -
Goodbye.
Goodbye mosquitoes good bye fresh beans, goodbye humidity, good bye summer breezes in my bedroom window - goodbye grass mowing, goodbye zinnias
(perhaps the hardest goodbye of summer).
But, as I increase in wisdom and wrinkles, I'm realizing that behind every goodbye,
there awaits a
hello.
Sometimes these hellos are unwelcome, as I've found out recently.
I did not welcome sorrow with open arms.
I did not.
And yet - with sorrow unwelcomed - there are still lessons if we search deep enough.
Oh how I'm embracing my friends and family now - oh how I make a point to contact my sisters daily - I never let Glenco leave without a hug and a kiss. Family suppers are much more often.
Sometimes in death - we find life.
So, as I sit here robed in fleece, clutching my new favorite tea - 'Yorkshire Gold' -
I'm feeling a goodbye in my heart, a so long to summer and all that it holds.
As you may or may not know, I strive to go the entire winter without complaining.
So I say this right now -
Fall - you are welcome here!
You - in all your blaze of glory - even though you bring certain death behind you - I embrace you.
I will drink your tea, I will celebrate your pumpkin-spiced anything - I will revel in the color and texture you bring to our world.
I will embrace the condensation on my kitchen window whilst the soup simmers.
I'll slip on my fuzzy slippers with gratitude.
I will be thankful for a cupboard full in preparation of the cold.
I will marvel in the cyclical nature of things.
And I will make the most of you.
I will dive into my indoor pursuits with abandon!
I will find beauty and balance in all things.
I will continue to be the best Jayme that I know how to be - and I will continue to
look for ways to improve and live fully.
As the leaves fall off the trees, I will let thought patterns and behaviors that do not benefit me fall.
Goodbye summer - hello fall.
What are you happy to say hello to at this time of year?
Bonus points if you say 'Downton Abbey'.
:-)
