Falling for Fall Again

Last week I was fortunate enough to spend a week in NE while my mom began recuperating from knee surgery.  Here are some of my thoughts from the week.

I haven’t experienced real fall for more than a one day period in years.  If I was single and didn’t love my job I just may have stayed there permanently.  I forgot how beautiful the trees are with the warm glow of the sun peeking through the clouds and the feel of the crisp autumn air.  If I win the lottery someday my goal is to somehow live year-round in a fall setting.  For Mr. C’s sake I guess we can have 2 weeks of summer thrown in there as well and a bit of winter for Christmas.  I LOVE Christmas, but driving around looking at fall trees in red, yellow, and orange is even more exciting than looking at Christmas lights.

My hometown has a population of 20.000ish people.  It’s big enough that everyone doesn’t know everyone, but there’s definitely a sense of community.  People are friendly and a complete stranger will easily strike up a conversation.  People decorate their porches with pumpkins and scarecrows.  Yards are green and filled with beautiful flowers.  There’s a sense of pride in everything and Christian, family values.  The baggers at the local grocery store my mom frequents even carry the bags to your car automatically.   At lunch one day the server asked how my mom was doing because she remembered she had upcoming surgery.  I can’t say I’ve ever had that happen in Phoenix.

I’m used to a 40 minute drive to work so I’m still surprised when I can drive across town in 10 minutes when I’m home.  One day I went to lunch, Target, the mall for some clothes shopping, Target again, and two grocery stores, all in the span of 2 hours.  It was amazing. 

The longer I’m gone the more I appreciate the charming town where I was fortunate to be raised.  I appreciate the values, the slower pace, the hospitality and sense of community, and the beauty I was surrounded by for so long.

My parents live by a beautiful lake with a walking path.  I began most days with a morning walk.  Everyone says “good morning” and one morning an older woman stopped to have a conversation with me about the morning.  Those walks were amazing.  Everyday was different and I noticed a change in the colors of the trees during the week I was there.  I looked like a crazy person snapping pictures on my phone every 5 minutes.  One day I took 40 pictures (it’s only a 40 minute walk)!  The last day I begun my walk about 8am, the earliest I had started.  It was very cool and as I approached the perfectly still water I broke into a smile as I saw steam rising off the water.  It was one of the most peaceful moments I’ve had in awhile.  I stood there for a few minutes, thanked God, and continued on my walk. 

Although it’s hard to narrow down my pictures, here are a few of my favorites.

I truly was blessed to spend some time home.  I was able to spend time with a couple amazing friends, enjoy a much-needed break, see family and still be taller than my youngest niece for one more time, and watch my mom make some major progress!  My mom is always doing a lot for us when she visits whether it’s cleaning our windows because she feels like it or having dinner waiting for us, so it was nice being able to run errands, take her to PT, cook, and just be there to keep her company.  I’m glad to get back into my routine but I’ll miss my morning walks around the lake, the cool air, the fall leaves, watching TV and playing games with my mom, and dinner with NE friends.  I definitely will NOT miss the spiders that seemed to stalk me in the basement.

For now I’ll enjoy the cool-down in Phoenix and try to patiently wait for scarf weather.