Fall Winds

The air is cool and crisp today and I am loving it.  The dry leaves are dancing in the wind and it feels like fall.   The seasons bring changes, not only to plant life, but to me, the way I feel and think about things.  Spring time always motivates me to make changes in how much stuff I have around me.  And, it is a time of motivation for me.  I want to run everywhere and do things.  Summer, well, of late, the heat slows me down, that is until we planned a nice long hiking and camping trip !  Fall time, sends me inwards, thinking about what I believe, what is really important in life.  The falling leaves and cooler weather seems to send me to a place of defining what I believe on the deepest level.  It always makes me yearn for more simplicity in my life, more of that stepping back in time mood, where things seemed less complicated.   I am there once again in my thoughts.  Thinking more about "home fires" burning brightly accompanied by quiet and good smells coming from the kitchen.  There is a sense of preparation for winter, for getting in the wood for the stove, for canning apples and such.  For quilting and getting socks knit for the family.   I love this time of year, no doubt something in my New England genes.  I love the way the shadows of sunshine and shade dance with one another across my desk and how the trees begin to show their "bone" structure.  I want to read poems about home and family and being thankful.  I am content to sit by the window, hand work laying idle on my lap for a bit while I wonder about, what does God really want from us ?  Does television fit into Philippians 4:8? What in our modern world does fit the category of "whatsoever things are pure"?   Fall time sends me to these questions more than any other time of the year, perhaps because I see it as a time of preparation.   Winter will come and that is the time I reflect deeply on life, and where I want to be and what I need to do to become a better person on every level.  Today, the Autumn winds have sent me on a walk, to think, to see, to learn and to listen, to that small still voice that guides us along the way.