Today is the first day of Autumn. Finally. I love this time of year, when the light is fading, shadows get longer, our leaves do their lovely swan-song-and-dance. It’s a time for fresh starts, nostalgia, dreaming, and turning inside – literally and metaphorically.
I’ve hinted at this a bit on the blog, but this summer was really hard, starting in the last couple weeks of school last year. Some really difficult and confusing things happened at the girls’ school, and I was dragged into it despite all my efforts to remain on the outside. I was betrayed by someone who I had previously trusted with my most important things. This person spread rumors of the worst kind about me, and was acting irrationally and incredibly unprofessionally. She not only betrayed me, but she also completely wrote my daughters out of her life, which, honestly was much harder to deal with. I spent the whole summer thinking about how to – and whether or not to – process it all on my blog. Although we’re doing everything we can to move on from the situation, it’s still on my mind, and still makes me angry and sad whenever I think about it. I guess I’m writing all of this down right now in order to move on with a fresh start, into Autumn. It’s hard because this person has played a big, fun role in some of our Autumn traditions, and I know I will feel her absence and her betrayal acutely during those things.
But, I’m all about fresh starts and moving on, so that’s what I’ll do now.
Here’s what I want to do this Autumn:
- Pumpkin Patch with the playgroup
- Pumpkin Patch with our friends
- Hayrides. All of them.
- Eat so many apples
- Pumpkin brew fest
- Eat as many Thanksgiving dinners as I can finagle my way into
- Halloween costumes
- Diffuse all the Autumn scents
- Walk with friends
- Write some letters
- Listen to as much nostalgic and melancholy music as my soul can handle
- Decorate for Christmas far too early
- #30daysofgratitude and #30daysofgratitudeATT
- Resist
- Plan Advent activities
- Anniversary date
- Go trick or treating
- Work on our quilt
- Put the garden to bed
- Weed
- Brew beer
- Go to a wedding
- Show love
- Spread happiness
- Do good