Big News!!!

Finleigh has big news. BIG news!

"Mommy. Mommy! Come outside! I got big news! Come on. I show you!"

What? What is it Finleigh? What's your big news?

"It fall! Look. Colourful leaves. It FALL! Yay. Fall."

It's official people.

Summer is over. Fall has come to Canada (at least to my part of Canada). Frost has fallen. Winter is not far off. Oh to have the excitement of a child. How deeply I miss that innocence. Not thinking about the long, LONG 7 or 8 months ahead of us. The heating bills. The scraping off of the car. The shovelling of the driveway, over and over and over again. The stir craziness. The longing for the warm sun.

Perhaps I should run outside and dance in the leaves with my daughter. Maybe then I'll feel better about the impending cold. Because really, I like fall. The crispness in the air while the sun still blazes down. The smell of fall, a mixture of rotting leaves and smoke. The crunch of leaves under your feet. Wearing sweaters again. And socks. And boots. And don't forget scarves, my beloved scarves.

And its not like winter is so bad either. Nothing is more peaceful than the quiet of a cold, winter's day when all one can hear is the crackle of the trees. Sound seems to move slower when it's deeply cold. And the sky? Well the sky changes too. The clouds move differently, wispier somehow. It takes on a pinkish hue for much of the day - as we experience a prolonged sunrise and sunset. And the beauty of a brilliant blue sky - with trees covered in hoarfrost standing majestically underneath, their brilliant white, leafless branches shining in the sun - takes my breath away. Not to mention the coziness of a fire in the fireplace. The excitement of Christmas. And the relief of spring.

So, I will try to focus on the beauty of winter and fall. I will keep my perspective rather than dwell on the negatives. The muddy entrance way - all the time. The stinky boots as winter ends. Buying new mitts and hats because they were lost at school. Taking off your boots at every appointment you go to, trying to avoid the puddles that other's boots have left because if you fail at that you'll have cold, wet feet. I will not think about winter colds and flus until I have to. Bundling up. Driving in cold cars. Days and weeks of not having exposure to the sun. Frostbite. And did I mention feeling cold? Oh how I hate feeling cold.

Wait! I said I was going to be positive, right?

Right.

I'm focusing on the beauty. And I won't worry that our 30 year old furnace might conk out during a cold spell this year.

The beauty. The crispness. The quiet.

The cold.

It's big news everybody! It's fall.