Every season in WI is worthy of adoration– there is so much to enjoy! Okay, winter gets a touch long, but other than that, what I love about each season is how it pulses with expectation and ushers in tradition.
But Fall.
Oooooh, Fall.
You, my friend, are something special.
In our home, October launches the holiday season. School is now in full-swing, our daughter’s birthday is right around the corner, then it’s costumes and candy, and suddenly we’re waking up to a new year.
But before all that, for me:
Fall means resting a while.
It means sneaking away to the coffee shop while the cool rain drips outside and curling up with a warm cuppa and a good book. It means sweaters and my faithful Converse sneakers, darker mornings…and nail polish. It means spiced cider candles and slower music. It means remembering my dad, flipping through old pictures, and putting memorial mums on the front stoop. It means longer read-alouds and earlier bedtimes. It means digging out the crockpot and serving up hearty roasts and potatoes with chunky pieces of bread slathered in butter. It means apple picking and pumpkin patches, football Sundays and half-time leaf piles.
Fall means everything that is sweet to the soul and nourishing to the bones: family and community, slowing down and reaching out. And it means taking pause to recognize the good gifts these things are.Â
Now, by resting a while, I don’t mean life itself slows down. No, in many ways it picks up and just keeps barreling forward. In our home, I homeschool the two oldest of our 4 children (the oldest (6) goes to a UMS school part-time), there are usually guests at least a couple nights a week, and the daily chores NEVER cease (can you hear me whimpering), AND I have just as many meltdowns as in any other season! Reality is, for us moms, seasons can often “feel” the same. Depending on what season of motherhood you’re in you might be thinking, I literally don’t have the capacity to make a crockpot meal (and truth be told, on any given day, I’m right there with you).
Rather, what I mean is:
Fall is the perfect time to rest in the heart of the home.
I’m preaching to my own heart when I ask, what if instead of fall just being a precursor to the holiday season (which now, unfortunately for many, is synonymous with exhausting) truly means a time of rest for the soul in preparation? I yearn to embrace these little years, to create an atmosphere of warmth and welcome, and to establish traditions much more so for the formation of deep family roots than the perfect photo opp. But none of that can be conjured up on its own, it must come from a place of abundance. In order for me to lavish on all those I love, I must first slow down and fill up, so by the time we gather to give thanks it’s coming from an overflowing well, not an empty cup.
In their book, The Life-giving Home, Sally and Sarah Clarkson write, “That’s home at its best – serving, loving, and encouraging within the safe walls that contain the secrets, fears, dreams, life work, and love that knit our hearts together.”
Happy Fall to you, fellow mamas. May it be restful as we embrace all it has to offer!
