Autumn

Can you feel it in the air? It's more than just a drop in temperature. It's the crispness in the air, as if a smell you weren't even aware of is suddenly gone from it. It's a subtle change in the colour of the light that is more than just a result of the changing leaves. Autumn!

As my favourite season draws upon us I find myself once again retreating more into the home. The season brings on a longing for home comforts and home cooking that inevitably leaves me with an uncontrollable desire to nest. It drives me into the kitchen to bake, to fill my home with the delicious scent of apples and cinnamon .  To fill my family with good food and the knowledge that somebody loves them enough to cook it for them. To create a warm and cosy home that reflects that a happy family lives and is loved here. To focus on what really matters.

Though a naturally observant person, my senses seem heightened in the autumn and life itself seems more vivid. Colours are deeper, smells more intense, even the feel of the breeze on my skin is somehow more poignant in these months. It has always been this way for me and the autumns of my life seem to gather together as the summer draws to a close. It is as though I could almost reach out and touch them. As though I am somehow there again, observing quietly from the mind of those younger versions of myself. An autumn walk I took as a child, a crisp October school day, my first walk with my first baby in the dim autumn twilight...the memories of these days are as vivid to me as if they happened only yesterday. Consequently, autumn also brings with it feelings of nostalgia, a realisation of the passage of time and a longing for things past. My vivid awareness of the present is tempered by a keen sense of things past...almost of homesickness.

It is for this reason that I feel the need to draw into the home as we say goodbye to the exciting and fun-filled days of summer. Autumn calls for a slower pace and a chance to savour the things that God has blessed me with... a loving family, a cosy home and a beautiful world in which to live.

Welcome autumn, it is good to see you old friend!
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