I love fall!  What’s not to love?  Autumn offers beautiful foliage, crisp and sunny days, harvest moon, pumpkins and caramel apples, sweatshirt weather, festivals, and holidays!  Sadly, autumn also coincides with my busiest time of the year–fall semester.  I am hoppin’ to keep up with my classes, meetings, conferences with students and events on campus!  And, when I am home these days, I am chasing a puppy around to ensure that he does not eat all of my shoes.  Occasionally, I spare a regretful look of apology at the house.  Even so, I rejoice in the fall!  I am pausing to admire and appreciate the change in seasons and the passing of one kind of beauty to another kind of beauty.  It’s also a reminder that all things have their season, just as it says in Ecclesiastes.  Like the changing of the seasons in the natural world, we each go through our own seasons in life.  I think it can be very beneficial to consider what kind of season I am in, and embrace it’s blessings instead of longing for something else.  When it’s fall, I will enjoy fall.  I will not waste these beautiful days wishing for a different season, and it is the same for life.  Simple?  Yes, but still true.

While I may not have a lot of leisure hour to pursue a bunch of harvest time activities right now, I am delighting in a beautiful pot of orangey-colored mums (a birthday gift from family!) that to me says, “Oh, Boy!  Fall is here!”  I want to take that extra step and plant them outside and see if I can get them to grow.  I also took time today to look up John Keats’ poem, “Ode To Autumn.” If you need a little beauty or a little inspiration today, I encourage you to read the poem and treat yourself (or a friend) to a pot of mums.

Praise God–my pictures are back!  Thanks also to my husband for hours of tireless work to this end, and for the assistance of JustHost in accomplishing this feat.

Now, I get to post the pictures of the hot air balloons that inspired me, and so many others, to Look Up.