What Does Autumn Mean To You?

Wow...where did the summer breezes & warm kisses from the sun go? It just seems like yesterday that I was outside scrambling for shade from the burning rays. Are we ever really satisfied though? When it is hot, we want cold. When it is rain we want cloudless skies, and when it snows we want beaches. We seem to forget that each season has its reason for being there. We here in Canada are surrounded by lush green mountains, fresh clean air, and fresh water. I cannot speak for other places because I have not been anywhere but Mexico. It was hot & beautiful there and I had arrived on February 25 th. so it was a welcome change from the very wet and heavy snow that had covered us that particular year, but coming home was a reminder of how I could not live in heat year round. I am a very seasonal girl and I would miss my snow topped mountains, rushing rivers, forests and the breathtaking colors of Autumn.

My daughter & I were walking yesterday to the supermarket and we found ourselves stopping and picking up fallen leaves from a maple tree. We drank in the colors of bright oranges swirling amid red & brown. Perfect for pressing, we carried them home carefully. Would we use them? I don't know. But they were there just in case we came up with an idea for a pressed leaf gift. We could not pass up the chance at marking that moment in time that we shared together with the chilly autumn wind whipping pieces of hair against our cheeks. I looked over at my baby girl (even though she is a married woman) who was bent over choosing the perfect leaves for her little collection and I was reminded of a time when she was a little girl, picking leaves for me. How the seasons had slipped by so swiftly and yet, here we were, once again, picking flowers & leaves to be pressed. I thank God for all of the seasons that have passed to fill me with the remembrances of being with her like this. I relate many of my memories to seasonal moments. I am a very blessed woman to have had a son & a daughter to collect pages and pages of season filled memories that will keep me in warmth through the ages of my life.

We have shared many a "tom turkey" dinners together. I remember when we were all a family and we sat formally at a huge dining room table with loved ones filling 25 seats. The turkey was stuffed and roasted by my former father in law, and it was done so to perfection. I have never tasted a more golden, melt in your mouth turkey. They always saved Darlene and I the wings. Oh those crisp wings! We really forgot our manners at those times and amongst the clinking of crystal and scraping of silver upon Mom's best china, you would hear...CCCRRRUUUNNCH! NIBBLE...MOAN...CCCRRRUUNCH! The family would stop and look at the both of us, (who were completely oblivious to the fact that we were being watched intensely)...but we wouldn't have cared less anyway. Yes, I miss those wings. I miss those dinners. The brussel sprouts in bacon sauce & carrots au gratin were a regular vegetable entree'. Home made dill pickles , canned beets, sweet mustard pickles, & bread & butter pickles were also a beautiful addition to our turkey dinners. All of these had been canned during the summer by our own little hands. Darlene & I used to can about 30 jars each of each type of pickle. Hot and tiring work but so worth it. For dessert over coffee we always had an extravagant show of beauty that would have pleased the Queen.

Now that, because of unfortunate circumstances, we no longer have these memorable dinners and gatherings, my son Jim, daughter Danielle, & her husband Felix, have lovely intimate dinners together, trying to prevent that burning "family candle" from flickering out.

Autumn...the time of year when all things die? No, they are just sleeping. They are constantly living through cycles of seasons so that when it is time to poke through the dark earth or sprout a bright new green leaf, we will once again face the heavens, smell the air and feel the breezes and give thanks for another fall, winter, spring, and summer. We have lived another season. We have gathered more memories for our handbag of age so that when needed ,we can open it...and remember that fall isn't about things dying...it's about living.

Glady