OK. it's been quite a while, and I promise I will do some catching up soon on the last several weeks for our family and friends that care to hear about them, but something happened today that I just had to share first.
I need to preface this story by explaining that I love Autumn. I love the way the light softens and changes in September as the sun travels lower in the sky. I love to watch the colors creep down the mountains and into the valleys when the temperatures start to drop at night.
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| (Yes, it's a real place, and we lived there.) |
I love to walk into the market and see fresh cider from local growers. I love breaking out sweaters and jackets. I love to help my kids plan their Halloween costumes and decorate the house. I love taking them to a pumpkin patch and watching them run around a hay bale maze and pick out exactly the right bright orange globe. I love drinking cocoa or spiced cider on a chilly evening. I love to drive through canyons that look like this:
I love it all!
I have very vivid memories of walking to school in Kindergarten and First grade ( I lived in a town and a time when you could do that...) and having bright yellow leaves so deep on the sidewalks they came most of the way up to my knees as I shooshed through them.
My family moved away, but my husband and I ended up living in that same town after we were married and in the same neighborhood, so I got to watch my oldest son playing in huge piles of those yellow leaves from those same old trees his first four Autumns. And I miss it.
Don't get me wrong, we love Fall here as well, but mostly because it means a reprieve from the wicked Summer temperatures and a return to outdoor activities other than swimming. My two youngest have never experienced any part of the things I described above, and that makes me sad sometimes.
We have a friend who still lives in the same town we left who knows how much I love and miss this time of year. He always watches for that first magical morning when the shift from Summer to Fall happens, when you can feel and smell the change in the air, and then he gives us a call to describe it and tell us he misses us. (Really good friends are golden, and we have been lucky enough to have several in our lives. Trust me, when you're blessed enough to find remarkable people like this, you will want to hold onto them!)
Well this year, he took it a step further. When my husband brought in the mail today, he handed me this package.
It was addressed to me and came from our friend. When I opened it this is what I found.
It is one of the loveliest, kindest things anyone has ever done for me. I love Fall. :)
