I was beginning to think that Autumn would never get here. The 80+ degree temperatures continued well into September. Then one morning I woke up to a crisp, slightly chilly but sunny morning and saw the first leaves beginning to turn from green to the golden fall colors I love so well. Ah, finally, the new season begins.
A new season has begun in my own life as well. After a long summer of renovations, sorting, purging, packing and thinking it would never all get done, here I am safe and sound established in my tiny house built with love by my family and friends for me to be my forever home. Actually, it's a house-within-a-house, an add on to a duplex. Whatever it is, it's mine, the home I have wanted for years. I can look out of the windows and see trees, grass, and hills instead of concrete. I can hear crickets at night instead of constant traffic noises, and, most of all, a porch to sit on to watch the leaves change and float gently to the ground (and, yes, I love the idea of raking leaves this year).
Our lives go through seasons just as in nature: the seasons of childhood, adulthood, parenthood, and, as I like to call it, our Third Age. At some point we reach a time when we need to put down our roots for good and just live out our lives one day at a time. No more transplanting ourselves from home to home, job to job, lifestyle to lifestyle. That is where I am now and I couldn't be happier. I wake up every morning to the sounds of my family getting ready for the day next door instead of hearing neighbors slamming doors and turning up the volume on their car radios. I sit with my morning coffee and daily devotionals until I feel ready to start my day. The family dog hears me stirring and sits outside my door crying until I let him in to say good morning ... I have a dog to share! After years and years of raising cats, I have a big hulk of doggy love. P.S. If I feel myself having a bout of kitty withdrawal, I can go next door to my granddaughter's side of the building and love up her three feline children ... see, it's one big family from one end to the other.
The seasons outside my window may come and go, but the seasons inside will remain the same from this day forward. Sure, I'll change the decor from fall, to winter, to spring, and back to fall, but in my heart it will always be that beautiful Autumn morning when my dreams came true and my forever tiny home burst into color. Be it ever so humble (and small), there's no place like home.
And so it is.
