Don't get me wrong...I LOVE Autumn. I think it just may be my very favorite season. I love new jeans, fabulous new sweaters, school supplies, crisp air, open windows all night long, cuddling under a soft down comforter with the cool air in the room stimulating my face and cheeks. The smell of over ripe fruits and veggies, decaying matter, the canner steaming in the kitchen, shinny glass quart bottles - filling my kitchen counter - filled with preserved treasures to give my family in the coming year. Fall leaves of yellow, orange, and red; a warm jacket and a drive up the canyon - roasted hot dogs, or maybe a turkey sandwich on crusty wheat bread, and apple beer - all to the sounds echoing off the canyon walls in the cool Autumn air. Organizing and scouring the house to prepare my nest for a long winter indoors...
To this mention of indoors I flash back to summer. This summer one of our favorite activities -- I almost hate to share it (it was so wonderful) and I hate to think others might start doing it and take our favorite grove -- but our favorite activity was heading out to Thanksgiving Point Gardens, taking a quilt, water, a snack (sometimes a delicious and ridiculously overpriced chocolate truffle for each of us) -- and spreading out beneath a grove of trees to read. The girls loved to lay and gaze around them looking at earth and it's beauty and listen to me read them a story. Edward Tulane, the Little Prince, among others, danced and played under the canopy of trees in the girls imagination.
I love reading at bedtime, I love reading Fancy Nancy to Elizabeth all day long, Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Mouse Paint to Claire...I love reading with my girls... but there is something magical about being outdoors, removed, separated from the house and it's distractions and completely immersing ourselves in the tale of a china rabbit, or a tiny prince on a tiny planet...
This is my flash back...I will miss those quite times, those peaceful times, those times when I feel like I am drinking in every moment, each second, of the joy which is so fleeting as our little ones grow. I am reminded of the scripture..."Be still and know that I am God" (Psalms 46:10)... As I would sit under the shade of our beloved trees, watching the eyes of my girls on me as they waited to see if we could read "one more chapter...pleeease?" I think of Heaven and I feel it all around me -- I want this very moment to go on forever, to never stop. As the season changes, I feel a twinge of pain to think that our time together in our grove has passed...sure there is next year...but the girls will be a year older, a year closer to moving on, someday leaving me. As much as I adore autumn, right now, in this moment, I wish I could banish it, send it away and hold on to summer just a little while longer.
4 comments:
You are such a good mom! I love how you make such an effort to make a lot of special memories for your kids.
Love this post. It is hard to let go of good times. Your girls are so lucky to have a mom like you.
I love to read about your experiences because of the way you write it makes everything so vivid. And I echo Amy & Emily...You're an awesome mother!!
ps. I enjoyed having McCall yesterday at Activity Days. She is so sweet and seemed so excited to be there...which makes it so much better:-)
I love your thoughts on the change of seasons. I've been feeling that way, too. I just want to squeeze every minute out of my time with my kids, and as the summer comes to an end, it just bring me back to reality and I realize how fast the time is passing me by. I just want to freeze time once in a while... thanks for sharing your thoughts!
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