Apple Picking

October is like this, one day it's as hot as Hades and the next you're scraping frost off your windshield. All this in a span of thirty-one days. You feel like summer is a distant memory. As you rake the leaves, wind blows in to toss them around, making you wonder why you ever bother. Well, because it's fall and that's what you do, right? We're making memories, memories laced with pumpkin lattes by the fire, hikes blessed by orange, red and yellow leaves that litter the trail, and sun downs that come all too early. It is bittersweet, this time of year. I once gave fall a Hail Mary, and that was the last time I saw things through the eyes of summer love.

We go through life with strange ideas, like summer is the best time of year. For some, it is, but why? We live in a rushed society, one that barely ever stops to smell the roses. We need a little forced R and R to arouse our sense of wonder. Time is not our friend, or used to be but we lost his phone number. This year is nearly over and what do we have to show for it? If you are a gardener, perhaps you have some fruits of your labor. The trees are nearly bare now. For the most part, the apples are picked, the leaves even lying on the ground, remnants of the life you both had this growing season. We are fallen people, just like the apples and their leaves. They sacrificed their lives to us. Or did they? Do apples, or any plant really, give themselves to us? As humans, we think the world is ours for the taking. We don't often stop to ask a tree if they mind our using it. I know, that story has been told. My story is more about using our time, not taking it. What is the difference? If we take our time, it is like we are trying to slow things down, so we can appreciate them more. If we use our time better, we are actively trying to get a different outcome. Just a bunch of hooey word play maybe. I don't know which I prefer, but slowing down definitely makes it sound like life is far too busy. If life were like it was before people made life a competition, perhaps we wouldn't feel the need to slow down. Using our time better also begets the idea that time is a commodity not well spent. How did we get here?

I sometimes wish I grew up centuries ago, where maybe life was lived by the season. In the summer, we would live further north, fishing and gathering food for the cold months. Perhaps, fall would arrive and we'd move a little further south, picking apples and pumpkins, and whatever else we could to store up for the colder months ahead. Then winter arrives, and we'd go even further south where the heat still descended upon us, and our time wasn't spent inside all the time. When spring arrived, we'd circle back, like a storm cloud to the sea. The circle of life made in a year, no calendar necessary. Can we imagine this life today? Our days are spent inside more than out. Our food is bought in a store, thousands of miles most likely from where is was taken. A gentle breeze is observed through triple paned windows, unfelt by our human skin. Progress they call it. It is tragedy, in my opinion. Children barely play outside anymore, except to play on a team. We rush around to these games and practices in vehicles that no longer need their windows opened to feel the breeze because we have air blowing at us inside them. This is not everyone's reality, but it is for the majority of people. We need to make a change.

Change is hard. Real Hard. It is often scorned when others tell you it is necessary. Necessary for who, not me, they might say. Change only comes through tragic events or necessity, not through discovery. Ah, discovery, remember that? As children, discovery was what we often sought, despite the wishes of our parents. Now, as parents, we loathe the word. It seems discovering something is often horrible. You discover you've gained weight. You discover your child didn't do what you told them to do. You discover a mole that never was there before. We loathe discovery! What if discovery as an adult was like it was when we were young? Suddenly life would be full of wonderful surprises. We don't need negativity to reign in our discovery. Go outside and look around. Take, yes take, time to discover what is growing around you. I know, who has time for that? Well, in short, we all do. Time is a construct we have built to itemize our lives. We don't have to listen to the ticking of the clock (I realize those with jobs MUST or they lose them!). Our schedules are far too full these days. I say, wipe them clean...or at least insert some time for discovery into every day. Take the kids with you. If you're learning, too, as you discover, it may amaze them. What is better than amazement? God made this world to amaze us. It's time we went back to our roots. Let's dig up some amazement. Every day should be one that fills our hearts and minds with the wonder of his world. Even an ordinary breeze can lead to something wonderful. What better time of year than fall to re-discover the little things? Go for a walk, watch a sunset, open your windows, enjoy every last bit of daylight before it all goes dark, and maybe, just maybe, see a bat flutter across the sky as it wakes up into its new day. It's not a contest. Just enjoy a piece of life that once was ignored, or maybe just missed before. It's the little things that matter, and for that matter, we're all the better for them.