Oh Fall, you have finally made your debut. And here we are, burrowing indoors, concocting and doctoring soups and stews, gobbling apples from the backyard (as long as we beat the birds to them!), making every sunset an event, snapping pumpkin portraits with only the most impeccable lighting, chattering incessantly about the weather changing (somebody stop me!) and writing too, everything and anything.
I always find myself inspired to expel all of my thoughts in Fall. Like, I may sit down and discover a novel waiting in the far reaches of my mind—endless ideas at the tip of my pen just because. You know, because there are leaves carefully stashed in different crevices of our van, swishing back and forth between the blades of my windshield wiper. Because the darkness creeps and hangs earlier by the minute, and thus creeps and hangs my brooding, contemplative side. Not so in the hot stretches of summer or through the singing inspiration of springtime. Give me a brisk, eerie Fall, breathing in the far off scent of a few wood burning stoves, and I’ll be ever so inspired.
We spent a day with our church at a retreat spot in the woods nearby a few weeks back. I am the type of person who is constantly surveying how terribly I’d get on in nature without roads and heat sources and general modernity. But mainly roads.. On the way up, I stared at the quiet surrounding forest, towering outside my window. Such a small speck next to so many redwood giants, that would all get on quite nicely with or without this highway, these log cabins and their visitors. Quite nicely! Later, I had a few moments alone in the woods, trying to catch up with Luke who was exploring with another family on the hill a couple minutes ahead of me. There on the hillside, sliding awkwardly in my Vans, trying to catch up with my shockingly quick child, a momentary darkness swept over the woods and the speckled sun’s warm safety net disappeared; it all unassumingly struck me. I found myself extremely aware of my littleness in the face of this grand cathedral of Redwood giants, the unseen creatures and creeping critters, the sliding dirt beneath my shoes. The eerie, beautiful, falling canopy of Mother Nature, and me, a perfectly out of practice explorer, soaking in every autumnal drop of it.
And so it’s been a good Fall so far! We’ve also been glued to our seats watching October baseball, whisking the kiddos away to swim lessons and days at preschool, helping Emma teeter and totter as she works on standing more often (and she is crawling now!). I also spent thirty minutes of one afternoon doing intense research in pursuit of figuring out the baker of a muffin I used to enjoy. Yes this is not normal, I agree. Mission accomplished, a few phone calls and yelp reviews later–of course it’s Kelly’s French bakery! And for some reason I can’t bring myself to sign back on to social media right now, and that’s been REALLY fantastic.
Hope this post finds you well, happy Fall to you!
This last week, we had our last meeting with the youth group we’ve been leading for eight years, and helping with for almost ten. Those numbers feel a bit unreal! .. There is so much in my heart when I consider all that occurred over the years.. in us, in our family, in time with the youth. Bible studies, Pizza parties, camps, movie nights, beach days and many many more. 
