Fall again

It's the time of year when the trees lose their hair, and the ground gets covered in my favorite canyon tones-tree petals of gold and red and brown. The fall always feels so familiar somehow, so beautifully melancholy. A transition time between lush and barren. I always remember thinking on the big changes occuring this time of year...that my life mirrored the transition I observed everywhere around me. Gillian finally came home to us in the Fall. Auspicious things are happening this Fall for us, and seem to indicate that the next year will be ours to make of it what we will-even more so than usual.

Maybe it's the crisp clean air that makes me feel eternally optimistic right now. Maybe it's seeing that same sentiment emanating from others.... like the sweetness of the very young couple at the park the other day-I could feel their new love radiating out of their shy flirtation and lingering touches, and not so vague innuendos. I basked in it. It was lovely. And the Tibetan man and his son bridging two cultures and enjoying this playground in America, Chicago, so far from home... The son wore a Winnie the Poo sweatshirt on top of his traditional clothing and had the smilingest eyes I have yet to see in a child that young. Like he already knew the Great Secret. Maybe he does... At the playground that day, there were five languages being spoken and I had one of those moments when I was struck by how I love that Gillian will grow up surrounded by and appreciating so many different kinds of people. And I am grateful for that.

So the days march forward, and we are necessarily tumbling along with them. We are purging the excesses of summer now, preparing for the cleansing cold of the winter, and the rebirth of spring. The nights are growing longer and the days shorter for a while, until the last bit of life seems still. Once we remember where we come from, everything moves actively toward life again. This cycle is beautiful, really.

We are changing, and our girl is changing...fluid and transient. She is entering little girlhood. She likes getting her toenails painted and wearing daisy hairclips and cooking in her kitchen. As always in Fall, I wait with bated breath to see what and where the world will bring us. So far, no complaints because God is Good.