Ah, September! It's the month of all months. It's the month when summer transitions into fall, and the mornings become a delightfully cool 40-something degrees. To top it all, it's my birthday month.
My month began with something I don't do normally, but it felt like it was something I needed to do at the time. I spoke up in church (in front of them all) about the things I was dealing with in the past few months and the blessings of comfort that came to me during those times. It's still tender to me, even now as I write about this, so I did get a little emotional about it. The result in doing so came as many people speaking to me, giving me a word or two of support, some stopped to talk a little about it, some offered help if I wanted, and some only gave me a smile. I even got a sweet little hug from a downsyndrome neighbor. I had phone calls. I had a few people stop by at home. Sounds like an introvert nightmare, right? This time it didn't bother me, because I picked up on the response early on and realized what was coming. It wasn't expected, but it was at the same time, if that makes any sense. Ultimately, it was nice to know that what I had to say was appreciated. It was a nice reminder for me that I'm not alone in all of this, and how many people are actually there to support me when I need it.
That was the beginning, and throughout the time and these coming weeks as the season enters into our valleys, I'll be witnessing the changing of the leaves--that sounds like some ceremony or something. The mountains started changing at the beginning of the month and are at their peak at this moment. There are a few of the trees near me that are early changing, and they are in bright red and orange colors. Those are the colors that seem to turn first, and then the yellows come in later. Unfortunately, because of the drought, we have a few fruit trees that lost their leaves in August, but most of the trees are still loaded and several of them are beginning to show color. The walnut trees are beginning the process of turning yellow, the pear trees are beginning to turn red, and the peach trees are turning orange. It's really beautiful if you get them all changing at the same time. The mountains normally peak between mid-September to mid-October, depending on the year and the trees there, but when they've passed their peak, the valleys begin, and even though we have fewer trees than the East, it's still beautiful. I think we've had the leaves in the valley last until at least mid-November before, so it's a long season.
I'm waking up in the morning and going out for at least a few minutes to enjoy the cool air. I absolutely love cool mornings, and mornings in the 40s are perfect for me. It was such an ideal morning on the day of all days, my birthday, and with an added delight to that, I looked out my window and discovered my childhood mountain covered in color! This particular mountain I've associated with my childhood, because it was the mountain I saw every morning when I went to school, church, or simply to play. The mountain caught on fire twice during that childhood. They were really bad fires, and burned many of the trees that I could see from my house. For years I looked up at that mountain and saw all of those dead trees standing there, and I dreamed of the day they would disappear and new trees would stand in their place. Well, you can still see some of the dead trees, but as I've been watching the past few years, those barren spots are slowly being replaced by some other trees with colors! I've watched the yellow patches slowly spreading at fall time, but I was absolutely delighted to look up at that mountain, on my birthday of all days, and see how widespread the yellow had become, and other colors were beginning to creep in also. Happy Birthday to me!
Speaking of birthdays, last year I decided to dress up even though I couldn't go anywhere, and enjoyed it, so I did a little bit of it this year. I realized a long time ago that how I'm dressed really does have an influence on me, so when I'm wanting to feel a certain way, I have to make sure I'm dressed up for it. I was about to get sidetracked there and explain how this works for me, but I'm restraining myself. I was in a good mood on that day. I had some friendly visits from a few neighbors and someone brought dinner so that I didn't have to worry as much about getting it ready for those I had to take care of that night. It was definitely a happy day.
Oh, and one more thing. I've been mulling over the idea of having a separate YouTube channel from my personal one. This one would be focused on my writing. I set it up on my birthday. I don't have a lot on there yet, but there were a few poems I read that were posted on my personal channel, and they are now posted on this one. I have a few ideas that I might try. It will be an interesting trial. I might actually put myself in some videos there at some point. I've said before that I'm not camera shy at all, so I'm not scared of being on camera, but I think the issue is more about figuring out my devices so that they actually record well. Some of these vloggers earn enough to afford good quality ones, and I'm not in a situation when that's possible for me. I just might have a little bit of an issue watching myself, but I can get over that. For anyone who's interested, the name of the channel is the same as my poetry blog, which is Becky's Writing Nook.
Have fun this week!
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| My mountain all decked out in color! |
