BOUNTY

Some of the last of summer's bounty from my garden

Paul and I started doing our fall clean up in the yard this weekend.  We started in the border in front of our vegetable beds because it got away from me this summer and was the most jungle-like part of the yard!  As I was weeding and cutting plants back, I got to thinking about the feeling of urgency that takes over my thoughts this time of year.  The older I get, the stronger this feeling becomes.  I suppose it could be that as I age, I have become more aware that my days are numbered, and that accounts for the sense of urgency.  I think though, that it's something more than that.  I enjoy and appreciate my life a lot more than I did in my 20's and 30's.  Time seems to pass a lot more quickly, but I'm also much more aware of it than I was when I was younger.  I remember when I was a kid, the summer would seem to stretch on forever and when fall arrived, I was always shocked that it was time to go back to school.  I don't have that same wonderful sense of time being endless anymore, instead it's been replaced by an appreciation of the passage of time and the subtle changes that take place before the full flush of autumn arrives.  Fall is one of my favorite times of the year.  I love the colors, the smell of falling leaves, the feeling of the warm sun on my face and the angle of the light on a beautiful, cloudless fall day.  I think what I love most about fall though, is the very fact that it won't last.  Like all beautiful things, if they lasted forever, we could never miss them when they are gone.