Autumn

I'm not ready for Christmas carols just yet. I'm still enjoying the crunch of leaves and a little Jack Frost every morning. December will come soon enough and our stack of holiday CDs will be playing nonstop. Our home will be taken over by the red-and-green, Santa, snowmen, angels and reindeer overload that I adore.

But for now, the homey hues that remind us of those yummy foods simmering on the stove and fogging up the kitchen window are such a delight after the blatant, showy colors of summer. The heater is on, the down comforter is handy, soup is a mainstay, it's dark at 5:15. Autumn grants us time to slow down and ponder our lives.

The Christmas rush can wait. Anything that's on sale will still be on sale when I'm ready to buy it.

The stitches from surgery number two come out tomorrow (all three of them). CTS has made me slow down and enforced patience which, to my surprise, isn't all that awful. I'm hoping to retain some of the lessons I've learned. Autumn is a wonderful time of year if you slow down to enjoy it and CTS has slowed me down big time over the last five months. Life went on without my to-do list. My self-enforced no-whining zone has brought me new appreciation of my blessings.

My gratitude list is filled with simple everyday joys--and right now, enough sleep at night that I actually dream is at the top.