Officially fall in a couple of short days, Montana doesn’t disappoint, she’s giving us another few glorious last days of late summer, the kind you don’t want to see go and yearn for 6 more months of……and yet, change comes whether we want it to or not. I have a love/hate relationship with fall coming. I absolutely love fall-all the things about it! Soup season is upon us-yum. I get to wear all my cozy gear again (think fun boots, jackets, scarves), the colors are amazing, people get amped up for the holidays-seems folks are even a little friendlier as we commiserate the looming winter months and how lonnnggg winter is here in Montana. We probably wouldn’t be commiserating as much if we were able to ski for 6 months of ‘winter’ season here in the Rocky Mountains, but, alas we don’t, hence the lonnngggness of it all. Last year it felt like winter wanted to hang on through May. Not sure how I managed winter without a woodstove until the past few years, that’s been a game changer and yet another thing I look forward too as the turned leaves give way to the white fluffy stuff. Don’t ask me how I’ve managed to get to 55 and haven’t experienced the whole pumpkin spice latte thing until last week, but I did. Last week I succumbed to the temptation of said magical concoction and it didn’t disappoint. I normally am a black drip kinda girl. No fufu for me when it comes to coffee, I drink it strong like diesel-black, cold and preferably a day old-but I decided it was so close to fall and I hadn’t experienced a pumpkin spice latte which seems to be all the rage (or had been over the past 20 years). It was, I confess, pretty amazing. It was like drinking a pumpkin pie. (I should have asked for whipped cream!)
The hate part of the relationship with fall is that I love summer here sooooo much! I think it’s my favorite by a neck. If I were 5, I would throw myself on the ground and probably have a tantrum at it leaving us. Last week the hummingbirds left without saying goodbye, just gone. Can’t blame them, they have a long commute. Soon the flowers will bid us farewell.
On a more somber note, change-it happens whether we like it or not. Change has happened this past week for countless people across the planet. So many changes happening on the world stage, earthquakes, trauma, war. But I have a handful of people very close to me, in my little corner of the universe who have had their own significant change. They have had to say final goodbyes to loved ones. Their lives have been changed. Not to sound like The Little Grey Rain Cloud but it hit me this week-all the change happening especially with those close to me and the parallel with the seasons and how change happens, it’s certain, we can count on it. Like the earth is pregnant and will birth this next season-it’s coming, even in the next hours. Flowers will wither, leaves will fall as the trees sleep for a season. Our world will be blanketed with white and the stillness that comes with the winter.
Fall provides a good opportunity to invite in, invite over for soup and a visit those who have lost are lonely and hurting. Winter could become too quiet. A good time to break bread and break the silence, listen to them reminisce by the crackling fire and drink in some magical pumpkin spice and just love on someone…..the blessing may as much be yours. Yesterday my husband and I had the privilege of doing just such a thing. A friend of his just became a widower 7 short weeks ago. We had just finished 18 holes of golf and were sitting down in the clubhouse for a bite to eat and saw his friend sitting by himself. I gave Mike the look. Ladies, you know ‘the look’-the ‘turn around and ask him to sit with us look’. It was supposed to be our ‘date day’ but we just couldn’t resist. Mike asked him to sit with us and we were able to slow down for an extended bite and listen to him tell some snippets of his wonderful marriage and his grief associated with this change. A sacred space. At the end we wrote our numbers on his ‘go box’ and saved his to our phones so we could stay in touch. A precious end to the day, probably the best meal we had had up at the club all season. We were reminded how blessed we are to have each other each and every day.
May the Lord open your eyes and heart to who you might be called to comfort during this season of change, it could change your day or more. Be open to the blessing.