Time....

If I had more time.....if time would just stand still.....if...if...if.

Can you make time stand still?  I wish I could.  Can you go back in time?  Sometimes I wish I could...go back and say I love you....go back and not say those words that hurt....just go back and relive some wonderful day.

But I can't.  In a few days we will return to standard time.  A mixed blessing to me.  We have lived many months enjoying cool sunrise and extended twilight.  When I was small I loved being able to go out and play after supper....night was long in coming and I had so much to do.

But now I have come to appreciate the shortness of the late fall and winter days.  There is something comforting about waking up and getting ready for the day while the sun comes up in the east..knowing that I don't have to race the heat.  The coolness of fall mornings and the pleasure of crisp days makes work easier for me.  Even as I bundle up in my warmer coat, I smile to think how the wind will feel when I face it blowing in on me.  So fresh...not like the humid hot wind of late summer and early fall.

Snow.  Snow will be here before long.  Perhaps it will wait until the new year.  That will be fine.  Heavy frost takes its place.  I love to see the white crystals on brown leaves and twigs as the sun touches them with fire...sparkling like a million diamonds.

As I turn my clock back I will say good-bye to those warm summer memories....and greet the days ahead...shorter they might be....but with memories in the making.

The Pleasures of October

This tenth month of the year is one of my favorites.  Cooler air.  Crisp bright days.  Nights that are clear and full of starlight.  The full moon seems fuller.  The sun shines beams that act as golden strands, knitting morning to noon to twilight in a continuous fabric of changing colors and hues.  Our Ozark hills are sometimes radiant with scarlet and yellow and orange.  It just depends on how nature chooses to clothe the trees in the valleys and atop the hills.

The air.  The air is so fresh and clean.  I like to chug up my hill and then cling to the nearest post and draw my breath deep down into my lungs.  Sweatshirt off.....stocking cap off.....the cool breeze that blows across my face feels like heaven.

Apples.  October apples.  In my Illinois hometown we would travel for miles to pick and buy apples that were grown along the river.  Bringing them home we would tuck them away for future apple pies and apple crisp and save a few for eating right then.  Precious apples, meant to be savored and not wasted.

Walnuts.  My mother always went hunting for black walnuts in the fall.  As they were gathered she would spread them out to dry and then hull them, cracking them open and picking out the nuts inside.  Black walnuts appeared in the fudge and cakes she made.  And they were precious commodities too.  Just like apples.

October.  A month to relish.  A month to savor.  A month to gather in the bounty of nature.  October, a month to prepare and look ahead.  But most of all, rest and enjoy to its fullest.