Appreciate the Moment

Our home, dressed in its fall finery

There's a lesson in this time of year: 

Appreciate the moment. It could be gone as quickly as the autumn leaves. 

Without an early hard freeze, autumn's vibrant colors painted the landscape far longer than usual on the Kansas plains. While we don't have "leaf peepers" arrive by the busload in Kansas, they could have gotten a show to rival eastern landscapes this year. 

I intended to stop and take photos - even though what I see on the camera lens never quite matches the beauty seen by the naked eye.

But, as usual, I had my "to-do" agenda in place and cattle duties to help navigate - places to be - things to do. So I didn't stop as often as I should have. 

The tree outside my kitchen window provided lots of good scenery while cleaning up after meals. But even a tree right outside my window didn't get as much attention as it should have. It wasn't that the tree wasn't ready for its closeup. It was me. And now the tree is bare.

However, I did take a few photos of our house clad in its fall finery. The vines don't often retain the fall colors for so long.

 

The tree near the south driveway provided a "window frame" for the house. But the "frame" is no more. It only lasted a snippet of time.

Every moment in your life is unique. You will never have two alike. Never. This is the science of living: Appreciate every moment. Have a heart so open, an understanding so beautiful, and a yearning for appreciation so complete that when that moment comes, you see exactly what it is.

Prem Rawat

Sunrises and sunsets are those fleeting moments in time, too. But I was glad I ventured out one morning this week to begin the day.

At sunrise, the blue sky paints herself with gold colors and joyfully dances to the music of a morning breeze.

― Debasish Mridha

My sunrise tree

I had written the rough draft of this post earlier in the week, and I decided to listen to my own advice ... at least partially. I had an afternoon meeting in Stafford, and I noticed the fall colors on the prairie grasses and the autumn leaves framing the Zenith elevator. I drove on by. But before I got to the railroad tracks, I backed up and snapped a few photos of the scene.

I had just driven past "Exhibit A" in my reminder to pause to appreciate the beauty. A massive old cottonwood along the Zenith Road was resplendent in yellow last week. But I didn't stop at the time. Places to go, timetables to meet ... all the usual excuses. 

The old cottonwood has played a starring role in my blog before. It shades the irises that grow along the Zenith Road at an old farmstead nobody even remembers any longer. 

And then we had a hard freeze and the colors faded like fabric left out in the sunshine. 

Later, I was glad I'd taken the time to put the car - and my schedule - in reverse. It was dark by the time I was driving home, thanks to the time change. 

Enjoy every moment you have. Because in life, there are no rewinds, only flashbacks. Make sure it’s all worth it. – Anonymous © Source: https://www.quotespedia.org/authors/a/anonymous/enjoy-every-moment-you-have-because-in-life-there-are-no-rewinds-only-flashbacks-make-sure-its-all-worth-it-anonymous/

Enjoy every moment you have. In life, there are no rewinds, only flashbacks. Make sure it's all worth it. 

Anonymous

Enjoy every moment you have. Because in life, there are no rewinds, only flashbacks. Make sure it’s all worth it. – Anonymous © Source: https://www.quotespedia.org/authors/a/anonymous/enjoy-every-moment-you-have-because-in-life-there-are-no-rewinds-only-flashbacks-make-sure-its-all-worth-it-anonymous/

Nature in All Its Glory

How beautifully leaves grow old.

How full of light and color 

are their last days.
~John Burroughs

There's probably a lesson there, isn't there? Cold gusts will send more leaves crashing from their perch this week. Leaves dance their way to their inevitable end, whether it's crushed underfoot or crowded into overstuffed plastic bags.

As I age, do I focus on the aches and pains? Am I consumed with perceived slights? Do I get set in my ways? Do I resist change?

A change of perspective often helps us see things in a different light. Last week, I was coming home from Manhattan after a fun Halloween evening with the girls. 

I so enjoyed my time with my little trick or treaters - a 4-year-old bumblebee named Brooke and a 6-year-old witch named Kinley. (Kinley insisted that she was a good witch - not a bad one.)

However, I was not looking forward to the doctor's appointment scheduled for the next day in Hutchinson. After getting Kinley on the bus, I drove back to Hutchinson and had some time before my appointment. So I switched my dress shoes for tennis shoes so I could walk the paths of Dillon Nature Center.

If ever there was a natural blood pressure reliever, it has to be Dillon Nature Center on a beautiful fall morning.

Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you,
and the storms their energy,
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
--Naturalist John Muir

During this month of Thanksgiving, Lord, open my eyes to the light, the color and my blessings that would fill more sacks than the autumn leaves.

 

A few days ago, I walked along the edge of the lake
and was treated to the crunch and rustle of leaves
with each step I made.
The acoustics of this season are different,
and all sounds, no matter how hushed,
are as crisp as autumn air.

                                                         --Eric Sloane

Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.
William Cullen Bryant

falling leaves
hide the path
so quietly
John Bailey
Autumn, A Haiku Year.

Autumn wins you best by this, 
its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.
Robert Browning

Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn.
Elizabeth Lawrence

Thank you, Lord, for autumn!

A Hint of Fall

The leaves are tenaciously hanging onto their summer green here in South Central Kansas. But change is coming. I see it in the glint of gold, peeking out of the canopy of cottonwoods down a dirt road.

I see it in fog-drenched sunrises, a gift on a morning when I follow a seed wheat truck to the next field. 

I see it dawning through a dirty windshield, far from my country roads, as we went to a wedding last weekend.

(This doesn't fit the photographer's manual on the Rule of Thirds since the elevator is smack dab in the middle of the photo. But I decided I didn't want to crop out any of that beautiful sky!)

A faithful sentinel witnesses the march toward autumn. Since 1915, nearly a century, the elevator at Rayl's Hill has provided a backdrop for all seasons.

Like a model on a runway, ahead of the fashion curve, the cottonwood at the end of our driveway is wearing this season's colors.

The sun is setting on summer.

Welcome fall.

(If you're in the Stafford vicinity, you are cordially invited to Stafford's 24th annual Oktoberfest on Saturday, October 5. Start the day with a walk or run at 8 AM to benefit the Stafford Education Foundation. There are downtown arts and crafts and food vendors from 9 to 4, a 10:30 AM parade, a book sale at the Stafford United Methodist Church from 9 to 4 and free entertainment on a stage at Main and Broadway, beginning at noon. Wiener Dog Races begin at 3 PM. Yep, more than 60 wiener dogs are already registered. We'd love to have you!)

Farewell to October

I couldn't resist just a few more fall photos and quotes as we say goodbye to October and hello to November: 

Fall has always been my favorite season. 

The time when everything bursts with its last beauty,

as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.

--Lauren DeStefano, Wither

I took the top photo through the tree stump in the foreground. Yes, I'm glad there is no photo of me taking that photo!

Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. 

There is always something to make you wonder 

in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.

 –Albert Schweitzer

I love autumn, the one season of the year

that God seems to have put there just for the beauty of it.

 -- Lee Maynard

As I looked closely at a tree, I marveled that there were leaves at every stage - from green to yellow to brown and shriveled. It's kind of a metaphor for life, isn't it?!

Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.

--Emily Bronte

 

Autumn mornings: 

sunshine and crisp air, 

birds and calmness, 

year's end and day's beginnings.

 ~Terri Guillemets

There ought to be a way to combine

"autumn" and "morning" into one word,

the combination of the two 

is special enough to be its own entity.

 ~Terri Guillemets

Anne Got It Right

Frank Anneberg Park - Manhattan, KS

I'm so glad I live in a world 

where there are Octobers.

                                  --Anne of Green Gables

On this October morning, I'm sharing some of my favorite shots from Octobers past, along with some quotes I like. I don't believe I'll be taking many photos today with winds continuing to howl. We'll see how many autumn leaves survive the melee!

Wishing you a day when you see the beauty all around us, even when the wind is gusty 30 miles an hour. (FYI: My October header photo was taken at North Platte, Neb., in October 2010 on a trip to Mount Rushmore and points in between and beyond.)

Dillon Nature Center, Hutchinson, KS

Autumn is a second spring 

when every leaf is a flower.

                                                                ~~Albert Camus

Dillon Nature Center

falling leaves
hide the path
so quietly
                    ~John Bailey

Dillon Nature Center

How beautifully leaves grow old.  

How full of light and color 

are their last days. 

                                                ~John Burroughs

The one red leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as dance it can,
Hanging so light, and hanging so high,
On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky.
                                                                   ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Frank Anneberg Park, Manhattan

October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came -
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.
                                   ~George Cooper, "October's Party"

Dillon Nature Center

There is a harmony in autumn, 

and a luster in its sky,

which through the summer is not heard or seen, 

as if it could not be, as if it had not been!

                                                                            ~Percy Bysshe Shelley

The County Line - October Sunrise, 2011

Consider the Wildflowers

Yellow splashes the fields of CRP grasses as the summer turns to fall. It's as if the color of sunrise has been leached from morning skies to brighten even an overcast day through smidgens of bright yellow on Earth's palette.  The goldenrod is not alone in its exuberance. The sunflowers in all their variations join in the
symphony of color. 

The goldenrod is beautiful, even at a distance. But a closer look reveals that the blooms are exquisitely detailed in miniature.

It's as if you could play the old children's game, "He loves me, he loves me not" with the petals, though they aren't much larger than the head of a pin.

Like fingerprints and snowflakes, not one is exactly the same. Each is exquisitely detailed. And I realize that, yes, He loves me.

I know the familiar "Consider how the lilies grow" passage from Matthew. But I decided to look at it in The Message:  

Matthew 6: 30-34, The Message

^30-33 “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
³⁴ “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

Thankful today for the lessons all around me. They are lessons I need to remember. It's just more pleasant to contemplate when they come in yellow and purple.

Get Out Your Rainbow Colors

You, whose day it is, get out your rainbow colors

and make it beautiful.

--Traditional Nootka Song

It sounds like good advice on this Monday morning, doesn't it? Poor Monday. It never seems to be a welcome visitor.

But maybe we should welcome Monday with open arms, stretch our hands and our minds wide open and look at the possibilities for a new week.

Let's look the beauty of Monday in the face this morning. Let's not wish our lives away.

Walk into a day and week filled with endless possibilities. (And, admittedly, a big to-do list. But still ...)

C'mon! Grab your rainbow colors!