Fall Leaves

David dedicated last Saturday to tackling the yard. You know, weed hacking, grass mowing, leaf bagging... I had genuinely told him I'd help. But, as he was heading out the door to get started, I decided I needed some coffee first. Well, by the time I was done with my coffee, he had already finished the back yard. (I might have ended up FaceTiming with the family in Atlanta...)

Coffee drank, spirit lifted, old fleece sweater pulled over, and gardening gloves slid on, I made my way out of the house to help my help mate. 

He had just finished raking the entire front yard and was bagging leaves by the side walk. 

I gave him an apologetic smile for bailing on him, and ever so sweetly he responded he was glad I had gotten some family FaceTime. 

I started to help bag leaves, and when we were done, I turned my attention to the front garden. 

When we were finished, the yard really did look great. David had high hopes that it'd be awhile before we had to go out and tackle the yard again.... 

Almost a week has gone by. Pulling into the driveway this afternoon I could hear him sigh before deciding, "We need to take a break from yard work this weekend. We'll tackle this next weekend."

We got a lot of rain this week, and a good bit of wind. I think there are more leaves on the ground now than there were last Saturday.

I adore my husband. I didn't want to tackle the yard again either. But, I was already adding it to our to-do list for Saturday anyway.

I'm very much GO GO GO. I do too much too often. And he is so good about reeling me back in. Showing me (not telling me) when it's time to slow down. Time to stop. Time to rest. Time to be present in the present. 

Isn't that part of what the leaves of Fall remind us to do anyhow? Fall is one of the most beautiful times of year. So much change, so much excitement. Many of us can't wait for the upcoming holidays to get here. But the beauty of Fall demands our attention. Demands that we stop. Demands that we marvel at the transformation. No matter how busy we are a red leaf, a mountain of colorful trees, a single orange birch tree ... each can stop us in our tracks. 

It's good to stop and soak it in. 

If we keep going going going, doing doing doing, it's very likely that we'll miss the beauty God's placed all around us this time of year. Missing out on something as beautiful as the Fall leaves would be unfortunate. So we'll leave them in the yard for another week. And as we pull out and into our garage each day, we'll marvel at their beauty, at the beauty of Fall, and we'll remember that it's good to stop and be present.