Fall: there is so much to celebrate. I love the color of the sky, the smell of the leaves, the warm afternoons and cool nights, cider donuts and apple picking, pumpkin crafts, waxing leaves, and the flowers that are just beginning to burst. Of course, the downsides include the early darkening sky, the the cold mornings so you need to change- sometimes numerous times a day to keep up with the temperature shifts; but then there is the main shocking part of fall that always seems to cause me to pause and reflect: how in death and decay there can be such beauty and brightness. Having lost too many people that I have been close to in my life, I would like to think that they each experienced the same sense of wonderment as their lives came to an end. To some, I might seem to be looking too deeply into something that we all see every day this time of year. I find myself thinking this each fall: not only is the turning of leaves an amazing sight, it is the color of death. The leaves are dying but giving one last display for us all to enjoy. So enjoy them I will!

Although the picture is not of a changing maple tree, the seedum in my garden looked so "autumnal" with the evening light....and it is the opposite. It is the start of a flower that waited for this cool weather to bloom. Ok, enough waxing poetic about the many pretty sights of fall...