It happened this morning

I noticed that fall is coming. Really coming.

Oh, I've known it for several weeks because I've been preparing for another year of school. And I've been harvesting tomatoes and peppers from the garden, and the purple cone flowers are faded and dry. Our very bad crabapple tree has been dropping rotten apples and leaves for several weeks. And a few mornings the air has been, well, less warm.

But this morning, I had to put the overhead light on so that I could read the God's Minute. The room was darkish. The subtle shift of the sun rise has finally caused my brain to catch up with what I've been observing for some time.

I always feel a little sad when I realize that another summer is passing by. Summer is the only season in which I have regrets. Three months of freedom from notebooks and textbooks and the relentless pace of school! I always imagine I am going to do all the things I say I don't have time to do when school is in session. The "list of things I'm going to accomplish this summer" is always as long as my arm. But when it gets right down to it, I never get as much as I hoped accomplished and at the same time it seems I spend too much time "accomplishing" and not enough time "enjoying." I don't think I quite know how to do summer.

But fall is coming. My favorite season of the year. I know that most people, rightly, think of renewal and a fresh start with springtime, but for me it is with autumn. It has always been that way with me. Fresh books, fresh spiral notebooks, organized folders, new school clothes, new shoes, new sweaters, fresh air. I love it. I can't wait.

I'll be sure to tell you when the furnace kicks on for the first time.

PS: That strange photo is a picture I snapped of a crabapple I noticed during our garage sale, suspended from a thick, sticky spider's web. It is still hanging out there, days later, swinging in the breeze.

Related Tags: seasons, autumn, back to school