Rainy Days, Mondays, And Pumpkins

 

 It's Monday, it's raining ... and I'm thinking about pumpkins!

As a rule, I usually enjoy Mondays. I like getting back into a routine after the weekend which is usually reserved for family time and, as it's Autumn, my beloved football. Rainy Mondays, however, set me back a bit. I'm slower getting started, slower releasing myself from my nice, warm, bathrobe and fuzzy slippers, and planting body in chair to start writing. I procrastinate some more by going for another cup of coffee, setting a reminder to get more cat litter at the store, and then I see a pickup truck drive by the window with a load of pumpkins and corn stalks in the back. A totally involuntary smile appears on my face. What is it about pumpkins that elicits that response?

Yesterday I went over to my daughter's house for Sunday dinner as usual and drove by an indoor organic gardening center that opened up this past spring. Outside was a huge display of pumpkins, corn stalks, gourds and bushel baskets of apples, but it was the pumpkins that drew my eyes. Orange is such a happy color, don't you think?

I don't know about you, but when I see pumpkins, I think about Autumn, my favorite season. I think about leaves changing into magnificent bowers of color, of pumpkin spice flavored everything, of sitting by the fire (a virtual one in my case) sipping cocoa or chai tea in flannel pajamas. I think about Halloween and Thanksgiving, of pulling out my yarn and crochet hooks to see what I can create for gifts to warm the bodies and hearts of my loved ones, and the smell of apples cooking down to make applesauce. I think of home, love, safety, and family. That's what makes me smile when I see pumpkins.

This year I truly believe that those feelings, those sentiments, are more cherished and embraced than ever before. In a time when we feel helpless and afraid, the sight of pumpkins sitting on our front porches or out in front of a farmer's market re-connects us with something we can hold on to, something that hasn't been lost along with so much else. We can still decorate our homes, make applesauce, and pull out our crochet hooks. We can still gather together in our homes and feel that love and sense of familiar that we so crave. Those are the moments that no one and nothing can take away from us. What is in our hearts is there for all time, just like the seasons. 

And so it is.