BEST time of the year!

If I let myself think too much about it, I can easily be surprised that Fall is my favorite time of year.  So many of the trials (tragedies, struggles) of my life have happened in the fall of the year:

1.  the doctors found the cyst on my left ovary in the fall (I had surgery just before winter started)
2.  my first miscarriage (Panya Ruth) was in November of 1999
3.  my second miscarriage (Anna Rose) was also in November, but in 2005
4.  my diverticulitis attack happened in the fall, November 2009--subsequent surgery
5.  I had my ablasion in the fall of the year, October/November 2010
6.  It was fall of 2012 (?) when I underwent one procedure after another in an attempt to figure out why I was throwing up every single day
7.  It was in the fall of the year when I blew up at my husband.

There are probably more things I could add to this list, but you get the gist.  In spite of all the horrific things that have happened [to me] during the fall of the year, though, I still find that it is my favorite time of the year.  

I love a big, full, orange Harvest moon!  

I love that it gets dark earlier.  

I love, love, love the cooler weather!  I hate the heat of the summer!  (Of course, the summer heat reminds me, very effectively, of the fact that I do NOT want to spend eternity in hell!)  I love wearing sweatshirts, hoodies, jackets, and long-sleeve t-shirts!  

Even though I don't get to go as often as I would like, I love fall football!!!  

I love the colors of the leaves--red, orange, yellow.  I often drive with my eyes on the trees rather than on the road!  I can't wait to take a drive up to the mountains to admire the fall foliage even more!  

I love the food that comes with the fall of the year--chili, s'mores (although, s'mores are wonderful year-round), apple pie, turkey, stuffing, and other fall delicious wonders!  

Campfires.  This is the time of year when all I want to do is have my husband build a campfire so we can sit out under the stars and the moon and just be still in the glory and wonder of the season.

I love the new fall seasons on tv!  All my favorite shows come out with new episodes, yeah!  I love that school starts in early fall--ok, late summer, but still!  

We have always associated fall with the start of school, so this is when you see pictures of teachers

and apples and pumpkins and other great fall wonders!  And I love school!  I would have been a professional student if it paid!  Since I couldn't do that, I became a teacher!

I simply love the colors associated with fall:  orange, yellow, red, pink.  Pink and purple are my absolute favorite colors, but when fall comes, I am reminded of the wonderfulness of the colors that make fall so incredibly gorgeous.  I can't help but feel that God is showing off when it comes to the fall of the year.  This is the time when His creation shines and shouts for Joy and wonder--and He is not just pleased, He is very pleased.

Fall is probably my busiest season of the year, so I have to remind myself every year to slow down and remember to enjoy all the wonders of the season.  Maybe being so busy is part of what I love about it!  For some reason, I'm always most inspired to write during the fall of the year.  I just can't stop writing during the fall.  It's part of what draws me to NaNoWriMo every year.  I WANT to write during the fall.  When I look back at all the writing I have done throughout the years, I see that my most productive times when it comes to writing have always been in the fall--even the years I did not win NaNo, I've still done a LOT of writing.

In spite of--or maybe because of--all the tragedies I have dealt with in the fall of the year, this is the time of year when I feel God's presence more than any other....when His joy fills me as no other time of year does or is able to.  This is the one time of year when I love being outside.  I feel His touch in the very air during the fall.  

Personally, if the whole year could be like fall, it wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit.......