Slow down, take some time to enjoy fall

Well, the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock and once again I’m so danged busy I don’t have time to enjoy the glorious season of fall.

Lots of us get really busy in late summer as school starts back and lives return from summer vacations. By the time the days begin to noticeably shorten most people are slowing down or have entered a steady grind. It’s been a long time since I was in that position and I miss having the time to enjoy autumn.

Too many deadlines, too many pressures, too much to accomplish and not enough time to do it right. The long days lead to long weeks and great frustration this time of year.

What my soul feels it really should be experiencing is sunlight and golden leaves on a trout pool. Droning sandhill cranes floating out of a cobalt blue sky, down and down, settling into a new wheat field of green.

My soul longs for groves of aspen covering a hillside, quaking leaves shimmering and drifting on my path as I venture through those groves. Or mountains ablaze, not with fire but with oak brush turned red by frost and the seasons.

Back on the Plains it makes a country boy’s heart sing as the roadsides are interspersed with the red of a milo crop and the white clouds of cotton ready for the harvest. Fall is definitely here when you stand witness to the last few standing rows of a stand of rustling corn waiting for the picker.

Morning sun feels welcome on your face and evening breezes make you glad for the jacket on your arms as the season arrives.

Now afternoon football games feel a lot more right than they would have a few weeks earlier when sunstroke would have been the fear with a 1 p.m. kickoff.

Suddenly chili and soup and cornbread sound like a good thing again. Unlike other blessings of the fall, I seem to find time for savory fall meals and lots of dessert.

In the end I think it gets down to discipline and making the time to experience the things that matter the most.

Slow down, soak in the last strong rays of sunlight while they last. Sit with your back to a tree and listen to the geese yammering overhead.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]