Autumn

I'm convinced that humans have a "harvest everything" gene that is triggered by the onset of cooler weather. When we got back from traipsing around the West the cooler weather followed us home and now the days are GORGEOUS and the nights downright chilly. I'm enjoying the coolness after the sweltering summer (but not enjoying the return of the perpetually frozen extremities--my feet won't warm up until March). I'm also suddenly motivated to cook and bake and clean and organize like a crazy person. I think there's some leftover instinct that says "Winter is coming! Get ready to hunker down and hibernate!" Well, if it involves apples by the pound and homemade spice cookies, I don't mind if I do.

I love autumn. I love the crispness of the air and the honey-golden light and the sense of harvest and plenty. I love the anticipation of the holidays. I love the food. I love watching the leaves change colors. Autumn is even more fun now that I'm no longer in school and trying to figure out if I will survive midterms so I can make it to Thanksgiving break. I can sit back and enjoy it. I can go on walks just for the sake of being outside and not dissolve into a sticky puddle of sweat. I can actually take the time to bake all those spice cookies and apple pies I want to eat.

But mostly, autumn is beautiful. Every time I go outside I'm amazed by it. I mean, seasonal transitions don't have to be beautiful. Things could just wither up and die in the face of colder weather. But instead, we get golden light and blazing leaves and so many many colors. I love that. I love that God engineered it that way. The beauty and majesty of nature have always been a testimony to me that God is real. I can't imagine that such brilliant and amazing diversity and wonder could have come about by random chance--there has to be some organizing force behind it. As Alma says in The Book of Mormon, "...all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." I'm so glad our Supreme Creator is an artist.

photo cribbed shamelessly from Google