Welcome, Autumn.

autumn in central park, 2006

Today is the Autumnal Equinox, one of two times a year when the day and night are of equal length. I'm not sure what that means, besides the fact that cool weather is coming. Yes, cool weather is coming to the land of Texas which this summer dried to a crisp. Here, Autumn, not Spring, is when we emerge from our hibernation. We get to drink morning tea+coffee not encased in an air-conditioned home, but on the back steps gazing into the yard as the squirrels scamper high in the trees. Autumn is when we get to take a walk in the middle of day without breaking a sweat. Autumn is when we dust off our firepit and start gathering stray branches to use as kindling.

There are exactly 37 days until we leave on our annual Autumn Trip to New Jersey & New York City! Oh, the memories I have there at every season, but especially this time of year...sipping a warm drink while walking up Park Avenue to Central Park. Enjoying a slow afternoon on a patio in the East Village. Layering on a jacket (and perhaps a light scarf) as evening sets in. Heading off to dinner in the coolness. This year, we'll get to take a true vacation for an entire week...no computers, no meetings, no schedule. We'll get to see our dear friends and New Yorkers The Sullivans. We might even take a drive to Connecticut and stop at roadside apple farms. I look forward to walking the leaf-carpeted sidewalks of my hometown, helping my dad bag leaves in the back yard, sitting on a bench and just staring, meditating on the change of seasons, and simultaneously, the change in me.

"Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn."
~Elizabeth Lawrence

The more I slow down my life, the more I realize we were meant to live with the rhythms of the earth. There is a reason we have seasons, and oh, how I need this Autumn to refresh me and remind me...that if not even one leaf goes untouched by God, then He can surely take care of me.