The Year's Last Loveliest Smile

Fall.  Long ago, I discovered my love for fall.  Fall means chilly weather (which automatically means my boots and scarves can be worn daily), candles burning throughout the day, windows open, sweatshirts, hot drinks in the afternoon, and extra cuddles beneath blankets with my loves.  Fall is "a bouquet of newly-sharpened pencils..."  It means baking goodies, changing out pillow covers, making hearty pots of chili and pasta sauce, soup and stew, hot apple cider and mulled wine.  It means all things pumpkin.  Oh, how I love pumpkin.  My love of fall and all things pumpkin go hand-in-hand.  Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, pumpkin spice lattes (I've already had my first from Starbucks!), pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pancakes....pumpkin tea.  And I have some savory pumpkin recipes I'm excited to try pretty soon, too.

One of my absolute favorite parts of fall is watching the season change and unfold before our very eyes.  My heart leaps for joy when I see shades of red, fiery orange, and glowing gold sprinkled in the tree tops.  I love to watch the leaves dance in the sunlight with the passing breeze.

Golden leaves of the golden hour

I love how the light changes so distinctly between summer and fall.  Something about it is so much warmer, more golden, more inviting...like an old friend who asks you to stay a while for a cup of coffee.

Blankets, quiet time, coffee

It's comfortable.  It's welcoming.  It's a slower pace.  Fall is the season when I listen to classical music the most.  Something about fall makes me want to "be still and know"...to reflect, to actively practice gratitude, to enjoy all the little things.  Fall makes me want to spend family days at the park, go for walks, bike rides, picnics.  All those fun things we could do during summer vacation if it was 20 degrees a smidge cooler here.

Quiet time by {unexpected} candlelight

To me, autumn is "...the year's last loveliest smile" (William Cullent Bryant).  Each colored leaf is a gift.  Each rainy day is refreshing. Each day of clouds is cozy.

Autumn Sunrise

Fall means gathering together for Thanksgiving.  It means the anticipation of celebrating Christ's birth in December.  It means family time.

I wait and long for this season all year long.  All year long.  It seems to take ages to arrive and then it passes too quickly.  It slips through my fingers like the sand at the beach...the way my little loves are growing up so quickly.  I've always said that I could live in an "eternal fall."  Some people would live out summer all year.  I would choose fall.  I will always choose fall.  Fall is magical and fleeting.  And always too short.  Fall stirs within me the way no other season does.

Albert Camus said it right when he said, "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."

Colored Leaves

Embrace fall, friends.  Embrace the quiet.  Embrace the beauty.  Before we know it, it will be gone.....until next year.