Fall brings so many mixed emotions in my life.

It reminds me of so many memories of childhood.

The first one was a welcome one and that was the fact of being able to have a cooler room from the summer’s heat. Since we had no air conditioner and a tin roof on my house, that coolness meant for more restful sleep.

However, it would not be long before the unheated room would be freezing on some fall nights.

At that point, extra quilts were added on.

The second memory came to mind of walking down the lane and seeing the goldenrod in bloom on the dusty unpaved forgotten county road.

It makes me a little angry to think about that forgotten county road. It took my daddy missing a day and much-needed pay to go talk to the people at the courthouse to bring them to mind that we were a county road and they were responsible for it.

Another memory popped into my mind that daddy had to pay for the big coal truck to come down the lane and drop the coal where a massive load of coal would be keeping us warm for the winter.

It always looked huge but it always ended up bare by the time spring would arrive. When the coal arrived, so did the coal stove, our only source of heat.

My brothers then knew they had extra chores after school to fill the coal buckets and get the kindling in for the fire to warm the house.

Sometimes walnuts would be in the driveway for us to roll over with the car for us to have to pick the walnut from the shell for fudge Mommy would make or for a delicious fruitcake.

It is hard for me to think some people do not like fruitcake since we always looked forward to the first cutting of the fruitcake.

Mommy would bake one in a large dishpan around Thanksgiving and it had to last until the Christmas dinner.

Fall did mean, however, we got to eat some of those peaches we had canned and when mom was not in the hospital or very sick. We got to have yellow cake with caramel icing and peaches as a treat.

Oh, how we loved it.

I could go on and on, but when I think of fall, I always think of how life is like a leaf.

We start from a seed and then we become a tiny bud that blossoms at birth to go on to be a green sprout that grows and turns into a larger green leaf.

The green leaves see us through the rains and we have good days and bad days.

Storms come but some hang on while others can not make it for some reason or other and fall away.

Then comes the fall and some turn into beautiful colors and show their beauty throughout life while others may wither and fall early or at older age and go away.

While others are tenacious and hang on a little longer or for some reason are the blessed ones.

Then, as the season changes and life gets too harsh in one way or other, the tree is bare and a new season or generation takes up where the bud started out with new buds and new life.

Isn’t life like that in a way?

We start as a seed and if lucky will wither away into old age.  Some people are content to just see fall and life in all its glory from an armchair while other people, like myself, want to experience life and would not be content to just sit and watch life go on around them.

I want to experience each day and say I lived it, was grateful for it and appreciated one more day that God gave me to do so.

I have to be reminded that not all people have that opportunity in some ways but some also do not take advantage of what they do have.

Reading a book is something I love to do but have little time to do so. It is fun on dreary, cold days to read.

I love to come up with something new in my mind, for example I am working on a puzzle for my homemaker group to do.

Calling someone who is lonely and would just love to get a call is another thing one can do. Sometimes we just have to make time for others in our lives.

Soups become a main meal once fall turns a little colder at my house and is welcomed.

A pot of chili, potato soup or vegetable soup — at least one of those become a once-a-week meal.

The only bad thing about fall is I want to eat more, that can be scary!

I hope somehow I have evoked some fall memories for you.  Happy fall, y’all, before the season falls aways and winter arrives!