Slowing Down

As Garrison Keillor would say, "It has been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon.  I must say it has been a quiet week here in Southeastern Idaho. October and November are the precursor of seasonal changes.  I always feel a desperate need to hang on to October.  Warm days and chilly evenings are great for walks and bike rides.  By the end of the month the day light is noticeable shorter.  There is something about the shortening of the day that forewarns of long winter nights.

Yesterday was one of those golden jewel days that we often get as last present before fall gives way to winter; a bright sky with a few clouds slowly building as the day matured and sun low in the sky. When a day like that comes along you grab it and run.  We drove through the Teton Valley.  The summer visitors are gone and the skiers have not yet arrived.  Only a touch of snow capped the mountain tops and a few leaves still remained on the trees.

There was a feeling of solitude and a quiet sense of contentment.  Yesterday was indeed a rare gift, for tonight a soft snow is falling.  It is wet and won't last, but it is an announcement that fall has marched on and that is as it should be.  The cycle continues and things around us slow down.  We become semi home bodies and pass the time inside rather than outside.  Maybe this is how it was meant to be.  Possibly we need a time for thought, renewal and a time to appreciate the cycle of the seasons and what each brings.