Autumnal Elements

I had an amusing thought while I was out on my walk and I wanted to share it with you.  I think, we should start wishing everyone Happy Holidays in September since that's really when the holidays start.  Everyone complains about how Thanksgiving doesn't really get enough fanfare, why not really make the holidays an entire season so we can really enjoy them all?  Starting on Labor Day, let's all just start saying Happy Holidays instead of Hello and Goodbye and see what happens.  What say you?

Ok, maybe that's over the top, but I like to think big now and then and these are the sorts of ideas that come to me when my mind is free to roam on my evening walk.  Even though I take this walk quite often--less often as the temperature drops--it's different every time and I never know what to expect.  I took these photos just two weeks ago, but already everything has changed so much.

Sometimes when I am out for my walk I am all alone to pray or ruminate about the day.  I might return tranquil and or I might return energized and excited about an idea.  Sometimes I'm with the family and we laugh and talk.  Or sometimes the dogs dig their way out so they can join me, though they are usually darting off the path to chase things or go for a swim more than they are along to accompany me.  

Occasionally one of the cats will come along but I dread that because they generally have to be carried all the way back.  If you remember my little black cat, she is rather demanding and can't just be carried, she has to ride on my shoulders with a full view, paws perched a top my head like she's the queen and I am just her carriage.

Periodically we disturb a busy squirrel and it angrily chitters at us from its tree branch.  More than once we've crossed paths with a poisonous snake and had to freeze and wait patiently for the snake be on its merry way so we could be on ours.  The bigger they are the slower they move and we have seen some very big snakes.

But, I never remember seeing such lovely sunsets as I have seen this year.  The evening light has absolutely set the entire forest aglow for a brief half hour or so until it dips below the next mountainside over.

I know they say Midnight is the "witching hour," but to me this is the most magical time and I think the critters know it too for a hush falls over the woods as though all living things pause from their work to watch in awe.

And I pause too from my walking and laughing and grand circuitous thoughts of extending holiday merriment just to watch the way our brilliant star burnishes my little corner of the world in ruby gold light before it retires to the other side of the world again.  I hope there will be a few more days like this, little breaks from the winter, but we'll see.

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