This summer has been a hot one. Not just hot, but open the oven and stick your face in front of it as soon as you walk out of the house hot. You get it. It felt like, many days, it would never end, and the crisp autumn air would never greet us. It’s easy to get that sense of not knowing if / when some relief will come our way, when we’re caught in the thick of it. Doing all we can to stay cool, not melt, and hope for a little less inferno tomorrow.

Sound familiar? I couldn’t help but think this is so much like certain seasons of life. Seasons where we feel like we are right in the middle, or thick of it. When it’s hard to take another step, you feel the pressure of gravity pushing relentlessly down onto your shoulders. Hoping that one of these “one steps at a time” will be the one to cross us into the next season. I think we’ve all been here, and maybe some of us are currently in it.

While I was walking Fretty, late this morning, I noticed the first falling leaf of the year. I took note. There was nothing I could have done to speed that little leaf up, no matter how bad I was ready for the ground to be blanketed by its fellow friends. Just like life, the trees and leaves take one day at a time. They blow around holding tight to the summer branches while the sun beams down and rain drops help them glow vibrantly green. There’s no set time, some years the growing season is longer, other times - it flies right by. But eventually, after pushing through the heat and steam, relief comes.

The air turns cool, a breeze comes through, and the cozy colors of Mother Nature surround us. The season changes.

There was no way for us to get to this new chapter except by going through the days before, and hoping one day we will wake up and feel a little bit better. It’s sort of wild how nature and our lives are so tightly intertwined. I hope the sight of today’s first fallen leaf brings you the cozy comfort you’ve been hoping for. It did for me, and I thank you for reading :)

Emmy