REAL Fall

So many around me, on September 1st, cracked out the apple cider, the pumpkin pie spices, the candles, and the cinnamon sticks to welcome "Fall." I'm sorry, but when it's 101 outside, things have already browned, and the leaves are falling from trees- not because of the seasonal change, but because of the drought- I struggle to be in the mood for cozy stuff.

Plus, I'm such a cynic. It's not Fall yet... not until the equinox. So there.

However, it's late September now, and today/tonight the light will struggle it's last with the encroaching darkness to keep the scales tipped in it's favor... and it will loose. Now it's fall... at least around these parts, at least to me.

A season so anticipated and treasured that I almost want to put off acknowledging it, as if that will make it last longer.

Acknowledge it we will, though, with our little annual autumnal celebration- a growing family tradition for the marking of the equinox.

We'll make our sweet potato pie, we'll gather leaves, we'll light candles, and we'll play outside. Then, in the days following, we'll really embrace autumn and really focus on being present for this beautiful, transitional, fleeting season... now that it's really here.

Happy Fall.