i feel like i write the same thing at the beginning of fall and the beginning of the new year every. single. year. yet, I still sit here writing it.
The yard is still looking great. But there is a crispy-ness in the air. One night I didn’t work that late, yet I drove home and it was nearly dark. AND, I wore tights for the first time last week. As if that’s not a sign….I don’t know what is.
This year just seemed to move so rapidly, I feel like I keep blinking and a month has gone by. I keep telling myself to slow down, yet I keep falling so short.
I make up excuses as to why I am not ready for fall, but the reality is I’m not a big “change” person. I need slow transitions, preferably on my personal timeline to really switch steps. I rarely get them, and instead I often spend a lot of time fighting it. Maybe that’s why this year I keep feeling so …. confused and constantly un-ready. Because I feel like this year has been one big change after another, and I just cannot seem to keep from tripping.
This year, I spent the last week of September in NJ. I mostly went to see my cousin get married and see family… but knowing this would be my last summer hurrah was an added bonus. This was the end of summer for me. The last beach-y weekend. It was still warm and humid enough for shorts and t-shirts… and the atlantic was close to 70 degrees! My dad and I swam for three days. I got a sun burn and had waves spin me into cartwheels. My parents and I rode bikes around town and got ice cream on the main street of town. They took me to a delish southern resturant – which not only had Abita, but crawfish too. My mom and I shopped around town, mostly at little beach-y shops and antique stores. My dad and I got really yummy milkshakes. We went to worship Sunday morning at the beach, where God seems to chat with me through the sound of each wave breaking.
I flew home on October 1st and told myself, get on with it, get ready, because you just stepped off the plane into fall.
So this week…. I turned up the heat, found a cozy blanket and put it on my bed, crunched a few leaves as I walked around my neighborhood late one night, dreamed of pumpkins ready for carving. It helped that the past two weekends have had the most perfect sunny fall day …where I read a book in the hammock (with a fleece!) and went for several rollerblades around Greenlake.
Fall, thanks for waiting on me. I’m ready to hang out now.
