I usually dread the change from summer to fall because it means winter isn’t far behind. Those of you who have been following me since early on know how much I hated the winters in Colorado. They say Colorado has three seasons…July, August, and winter. They aren’t far off. In general, winter is better here in West Virginia. At least it doesn’t usually snow till mid to late November. And once March hits, spring is close behind.
This year is different for some reason. Maybe it’s living at the farm, but I’m finding myself staying present with each passing day and enjoying it to the fullest. In the mornings I read my books…A Purpose Driven Life, The Prayer of Jabez, and the Bible (NIV). I pour a cup of coffee and sit in my grandma’s rocker in front of the dining room window. She sat here in her later years, rocking and watching the world go by. She was close to the phone. She was a runner when the phone rang so when she got too frail to run, she sat here.
The view out the window is the hillside across the road. The leaves are falling fast now that we’ve had a couple of frosts. When a gust of wind comes up the holler, the leaves fly like colorful ghosts on the breeze. The ground below is carpeted with wet, brown leaves giving off the smell of earth and decay…a pleasant smell that brings back memories of walking to and from school with my friends, our feet swish-swish-swishing through the fallen leaves on the sidewalk…our footsteps breaking them down over time to a coarse powder.
Even though I am about 30 miles from town out on the farm, I have many friends from high school that I keep in touch with through my personal Facebook page and I never feel lonely. I get to town a couple of times a week, at the least. One of my high school friends is Marion…a very talented artist living in Cincinnati. There aren’t many people in my social circle who bring grief up these days, but Marion sends me interesting articles when she sees something she thinks might be helpful for me…either in my personal journey or my writing. Yesterday she sent me an article about the various ways grief changes your life forever. There are many ways that I am forever changed. Just as my tolerance for winter seems to be changing, so is my ability to distance myself from my acute grief. It is a relief on both counts.
My world is changing…literally and figuratively. And, it’s good. It’s very, very good.
❤️
“As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.””
Genesis 8:22 NLT