Sweet transition from the heat, from the work, from the hard, rough edges of life. On we go now to autumn, to black, lacy leaves and twigs standing out against an orange sky. The mornings now have that coolness, that chill that tells us we once again have made it through the heat and toil and can sit back now and then and reflect on things.

We can think now of family, of children growing and learning. We can think of loved ones growing old and feeble, but even more beloved as we realize what treasures they are to us.

We can think back on childhood memories of lazy mornings in church, when the droning kept us in constant danger of sleep, of the smell of coffee, of the taste of purloined doughnuts and the sweet frosting on them.

We can think back to the fires of spring, when we found that love is not only terrible, but terribly exciting, too. We can reflect on moments so sacred they live only within our souls and are never expressed, because no one is good enough to put the right words to them.

We look at red barns and horses starting to shag up for winter. We think of the woods, and the deer, and the creeks running pure clear and cold with fish and quiet. The evenings now, the quiet fall evenings when we see the first star come out right over the town where it has always been and we once again ask ourselves if it has always been this way and do we make a difference, or is this simply a chance for our souls to slide through a beautiful time known as life.

We settle down now to an earlier bed time, to a later getting up time, to savoring the heat of the morning coffee as well as the smell and the taste. We look around, now that the fever of summer work has abated, and we notice people and pets and neighbors that are precious to us, and we give a little smile and nod, which means, “I love you, too.”