It follows with thoughts we begin to have as the years pile on…they will miss me when I am gone. Because we know what it feels like to MISS someone, or some event, place or experience.
So how does anyone make life feel endless, perfect….like a smooth road ahead.
Well, my purpose today is to be POSITIVE. To reach out and see life as advancing and not departing. Like my garden, which is falling asleep, because it is late autumn, time for rest and regeneration. Like my grandson who is learning about dying leaves and change, and thus loves picking up those leaves and stones.
But I love autumn for that reason. We ALL NEED TIME to go inward. Even when I lived in California, I could decide NOT to walk a mile every day, not to worry about my garden, which did not have that much to offer during December. And now back in Chicago, I am enjoying the deep purples and rust colors of my garden, because that is all that remains. I have put alway all my garden decorations that don’t like snow and ice. And when I walk, all the local gardens are calling out with vibrant goodbyes. It truly is wild and colorful. And so it is time to….
Celebrate! Brighten Things Up!! As the greens and yellows of summer become the orange and purple of autumn, we celebrate with pumpkins, gourds and dried flowers. We get ready for Halloween, and in some ways putting the garden to bed (in my climate at least) can be a relief…more time to read, but also to throw on another layer and take walks as the gardens recede and sunshine becomes a desired gift.
So what have I lost? Maybe the brilliance of the garden…but it will return. And what should I have kept? Well, I did store all my garden ornaments, wrapped them up for the winter. And I also saved some memoires…how our apple tree behaved and didn’t require a huge cleanup..how the roses were lovely and that the new plantings, gifts from our daughter Carrie and her husband Ben added so much to the garden…so yes I did keep some things…those memories. Gardens are like that. They remind you to remember, because in autumn there are some things we just cannot keep. And happy thought…there are always pumpkins.
