October Days

This is sunset on Lake Mille Lacs near Isle, facing Father Hennepin State Park.

This has been serenity for me and QH, the love of my life, the last few weeks. We drive an hour to get there, and an hour to get back home, but the last few weeks it has been worth it. The weather has been phenomenal, even though the fishing hasn't, but when you can see bald eagles diving for fish, loons diving and surfacing and a sunset like this that pictures don't do justice, it's worth the work and the miles to be there.

I'm sad this season and this month have gone by so fast. Fall seemed to be here suddenly and going just as fast. But I feel like I've enjoyed more of it this year than I did last year. And while I didn't do as much canning this year, I know I've accomplished a lot in the last couple of months, much more than I believed I could or expected I could.

With winter coming, I know things have to be done to prepare. The windows need to be covered in plastic. I need to find the boots, the winter coats and gloves. The winter car kits needs to be re-assembled and put in the vehicles, not to mention the cars themselves need to be attended to: oil changes, tire rotations, and checking of the antifreeze levels.

Outside, the tomatoes are gone. The flowers are dying more with each passing frost. The hummingbird feeders are now clean and drying and waiting for spring.

I know most people think the fall season is depressing, but I find it rejuvenating. Halloween is coming and there is something special about the bare, dark arms of the trees stretching into the night sky, with a full moon, as if they were hands reaching up to hold it there in the sky. The brown and dry corn fields, the scarecrows, the pumpkins, the rustle of leaves as you walk through them. The smell of wood burning in a bonfire outside, and the call of ducks and geese as they gather and fly overhead.

I think of all the things I accomplished this year, and all the things I still want to accomplish. I went to the Grand Opening of the new bookstore in town called the Reading Frenzy Bookshop, and I was like a kid at Christmas. A place for me to buy books, donate the books I have read, and soon, to have my own book sitting on that shelf for sale. I saw myself in there at my own book signing, and dreamed last night of holding a writing class there. All things I have yet to accomplish in the physical world, but still alive in my imagination. It may take a month or two to make it happen, but I will accomplish my writing dreams. 

October is a time for me to check my yearly "To-Do" List and see if I am where I want to be.

I love this time of year, and love the sights and sounds of all the October Days.

Cherish them while you can.