Greeting the Dawn
I step out into bright sunlight and long shadows as a brilliant Autumn day dawns. The air is still and cool and I can see my breath in billowy clouds that dissipate quickly. White frost still clings to the edge of the eves and glitters in the shadows and the warmth of the sun begins to transform it into millions of tiny droplets that catch the sun and dampen the grass.
I look up at my trees and notice for the first time how many of the leaves have begun to turn from summer green to the warm colors of Autumn. My ash tree – always the first to usher in the colors of fall, has begun to cover the ground with her scarlet coat. Goji berries hang in strings like orange pearls covering the shedding branches of the vine as it drops its leaves to reveal its last harvest of the season. I wonder if the mockingbirds and red-bellied woodpeckers are still here to fill up on the bright berries before they head south for winter.
Looking Back
When I was a young mother, it often seemed like summer days would stretch out almost indefinitely and there seemed to always be another day just around the corner to do all those things my children and I wanted to do. But all too soon, the days would shorten, the nights turn cooler, and before long the leaves would be falling from the young trees in our yard. School lessons would resume, and we would spend our afternoons gathering in the last of the garden produce and cutting firewood for winter.
Early on in those long busy days of motherhood, I learned – more out of necessity than wisdom – as often as possible throughout the day or at least at the end of the day, to just be still for a moment and live fully where I was in that day and in that moment. And as I paused for just a few moments and watched the sun set on another day, I would try to remember all I had to be grateful for.
An Autumn Pause
Today my toes are dry in my muck boots, but I can feel the cold of the damp grass and I am reminded that these beautiful Autumn days are fleeting. So, I pause in the yard to breathe deep and take in the sweet smell of roses still in bloom mingled with the musty smell of frosted leaves, and my heart is filled with gratitude for beauty of Autumn, both in my life and in the day.
So, whatever season you’re in, take a moment to pause and be grateful for all this moment holds.