There is a great deal of comfort in the rhythm of the seasons ….spring to summer, summer to autumn, autumn, to winter, and the white icy coat on my grass this week was confirmation of that phenomenon.

We all have our favorite seasons, and I must say, Autumn has much to offer as the winner. Trees busting in color, temperatures not too hot or too cool, harvesting the bounty of the earth, football games, and the heating and cooling bills go down!!

Personally, I got my portable electric heater out for the bathroom, put on my flannel sheets, and got out my down comforter, just in case! The Shenandoah Vally can throw us a curve in weather patterns every now and then, but traditionally, we have a very tolerable climate in all seasons. So if you are a product of this garden of Eden, or a pilgrim who navigated here, thank your forbears or your good sense in your ability to snuggle down and enjoy the crisp mornings and cool nights of a Shenandoah Valley October.

It’s warm here in the Shenandoah Valley, but 40 degree nights forecast for the week. One of the things I love about the valley is the definite changing of the seasons, but it seems somehow those changes have gotten a bit blurred with Climate Change, so the scientists tell us. Mom always said that we could have a “killing” frost anytime after September 15. Not this year!

Symbolically, more than any other reason, I changed the wreath on my front door, changed the air filter in my heating/cooling system, and picked the last two tiny tomatoes from my vines.

On the farm, Fall was Bill’s favorite season. Big green forage wagons were greased and cleaned to be ready for the bounty of crops soon to fill them in the ritual of harvest. Football and hunting filled his mind and hours with pure joy. Somehow it seemed, to all of us, it gave us the chance to celebrate by preserving and being grateful for the year before the hibernation of winter months.

So, bite into a crisp apple, make a pumpkin pie, buy a mum, and when the leaves start to change, find your nearest national Park and praise God for Autumn.

The words to the old song by Peter Lind Hayes ring true for me more and more as a realization of my wonderfully active life having limits hits me. So what I need to do is transfer that physical energy to what my body dictates. My wonderful daughters have joined me in pursuit of that actuality.

So instead of walking multiple miles outside each day, I am safely and comfortably walking in water at Sentara Wellness Center, and adding back some gentle yoga that I enjoyed in the past with a bit of balance and stretching exercise, I found a new way.

I find a certain satisfaction and a bit of chest-pounding victory in being able to transition, for at a time in life when we resist change, we are called on to make more changes than ever before in our lives! We need to, perhaps, move to more suitable living arrangements, address physical changes to health care, handle emotional losses in deaths of loved ones, so don’t call us old or weak, or passé. I have never been stronger in my life!

Listening to the Turpin foster care suits going on in the courts today just makes my stomach lurch and my mind spin with memories. I will begin by saying that the social workers that worked with me were absolutely professional and proficient in every way.

So here is my short story about my venture into foster care when I already had seven children of my own!!! I had a relative who was a case worker and hearing his story of the great need, I decided to volunteer. I already had baby and children “equipment” like cribs and baby clothes, so I told them I would take infants from the hospital for the six weeks before their adoption finalized. Pure joy!!! I never charged social services and it was a pleasure in many ways. First of all it taught seven little girls that we love everyone, never condemning, never sitting in judgment of decisions, even when they are not one you would make.

We also took children when they were taken away from birth parents until permanent care was available. I couldn’t do long term foster care….I was afraid if I kept them too long, they would be mine and I would never let them go.

So why am I telling you this?? Foster Care is in crisis stages in a lot of our country, so what will happen when children born in all kinds of unfortunate circumstantial enter the system? Besides what the Roe vs Wade decision concerning abortion did for women, remember we are most importantly cutting off birth control access for women who have no other avenue for that.

I pray that all of the passion by proponents of the Supreme Court decision is transferred to that child born into a world, unappreciated, without resources for living in that world. We must open our hearts and our lives to make sure what we have legislated is better than the alternative for those children. Watch the Turpin case if you can stand to do so.

My girls know they probably can’t call me early morning because I am walking. If I can’t get outside in some weather events, I am walking around and around my unfinished basement………not ideal, for the view never changes!!!!

I started a routine of early morning walking back in the late 80’s and it has continued to be a part of my daily routine. I like to think that I follow the sun. Right now it is at it’s northern most journey, and beginning it’s slow move southward. This morning at 6:15 it was breaking over Laird’s Knob on the Massanutten with whispy clouds just beginning to reflect it’s glow. it will continue down the Massanutten, on to the Blue Ridge, and in early Spring, come back home again. I’ll be watching!

My walking companions have changed over the years, but I have always enjoyed our shared moments of greeting the earth as it, along with us, rises with renewed hope and resolve to make a brand new day a good one. Thanks be to God.

Running through my mind on my 84th birthday yesterday were the lyrics to the old Frank Sinatra song, It Was A Very Good Year, in which he was recalling his life. It wasn’t the first few verses , which were mostly references to his romantic life, but it was the fourth verse that spoke to me.

“But now the days are short, I’m in the autumn of the year. Now I think of my life as vintage wine from fine old kegs, from the brim to the dregs, it poured sweet and clear. It was a very good year.”

Wine has absolutely no purpose but to give pleasure and comfort to life, and we seek it out in celebration and communion with one another. So such a reference to life speaks clearly to this octogenarian. With occupations and child rearing, and relationships, it was not hard to see relevance and purpose to life, but in these autumn days, that blurs in our minds.

Here’s what we do…… make our encounters with all we meet like handing them a vintage wine, smooth on their tongue and nectar to their soul. Make them feel better about themselves in having spent time with you. A very good year, indeed.

Remember the school playground of your childhood, or the playground of your grown children? Jungle gyms, metal slides, merry go rounds and the good old game of dodge ball?

Children hung by their knees from gyms of all heights with heads toward the cold hard ground? Merry go rounds , if they didn’t make one nauseous, could by centrifugal force send you spinning out on the cold hard ground. Oh, and dodge ball……thought too competitive and possibly harmful by the impact of a soft, air filled ball thrown at your child, have all been eliminated from the school scene.

I just heard on TV that the leading cause of death of school age children is gun fire!!! Not cancer, not accident, not viruses, most deaths are by gun fire.

If this doesn’t make you furious, I don’t think we live on the same planet!! An ER doctor was on internet this morning saying they actually have refresh training in how to handle gun wounds in small children, whose injuries are much more serious considering the small organs that take impact of a bullet with much more damage. Damn it!! This makes me sick to my stomach.

I am tired of hearing that it a mental health problem or that “people” kill people not guns. All other countries have mentally ill people, but what we have that those countries do not, is assault weapons that people shout about their right to own. Bull! That is the cry of weak people who hide behind a false premise without responsibility. It takes a strong, strong person to forego a perceived personal right for the good of their fellowman.

Technology is wonderful when it works, but the least little snafu in navigating it can be both time consuming to the point of overwhelming frustration. My crazy arthritic fingers made a small mistake working on an email problem, and I still have problems. Barbara is coming over this weekend to fix it.

Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian, “great soul”, pacifist who led the non violent campaign to win India’s freedom from England, gave the world many gifts, greatest of which was his eternal hope for the world’s survival from despair.

In the midst of today’s climate of division, war, distrust of leaders, as well as distrust of each other, I found these words of his meaningful. I give them to you with the hope that you find them so.

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it—-ALWAYS!“

This is really daughter Sarah’s blog or story, and I hope I can relate it to you as she told it to me on her morning visit. With a car loaded down with mulch and plants, she was excited to spend the afternoon outside, which the school holiday allowed this educator.

“ Well let me tell you about the mother and child in front of me in line at Martins, Mom!” I was all ready to hear one of those ghastly spoiled brat stories that you probably have seen many times, but I could tell by Sarah’s face, I was about to hear something different.

The young mother had a little girl in the cart seat as she was putting groceries on the checkout belt. The mother says to the child, calling her name, “Do you see that cucumber and pepper back there? You are going to have to help me!” So the child turns in her seat and hands the items to the Mom, who thanks her, calling her by name. Then the mother says, “ I need you to reach that bag for me … it might be too heavy, but can you try.” The child again,, with some effort hands the bag to the mother, saying, “It’s not heavy Mommy!” Again being acknowledged for her effort.

Sarah said by then she had to say something, asking how old the little girl was…..two, the mother said. Sarah then said, “ she probably won’t know what you have done for her until she’s in her twenties, but having taught school for thirty some years, I know what you did for her in this simple task. You gave her responsibility, you gave her acknowledgement, you gave her a sense of self worth.”

Just one small story about parenting that goes on every day, and the ones we acknowledge are usually the ones missing the opportunity to make an indelible mark on our children’s attitudes about life and how important they are to us. Thank you Sarah for your words to that young Mom.