Red Leaves of Autumn

© Les Taylor Photo (Thanks, Leslie!)

What exactly would be the seasonal opposite of "Spring has Sprung"?  I'm not sure what cute name it would be given, but I saw a lovely example of it today.  See, here in the South we have relatively mild falls and winters, and many of our trees never do the color change routine that is so common to places farther north.  To see a tree in full fall "bloom" is somewhat of a rarity here.

It rained—well, drizzled—for most of the day today. There was very little blue sky, and what did show was in little bits that were quickly swallowed up again with more dark clouds.

Shortly before our school dismissed today, the rain finally let up in that part of town.  As I was loading my bags into my car to head home, I glanced over at a tree in the center median of the faculty parking lot, and immediately wished I had had my camera in my purse.  There, in the parking lot of the school, one of our small and normally-green trees had burst into a full coat of red leaves for fall.  I took a picture with my phone, the only camera I had available, and wanted to share it here along with a poem I discovered a few years ago!

Red! Got A Late-Summer Makeover

Students and teachers alike just finished getting outfitted with new clothes for school.  Change can be a really good thing, and new clothes can be an outward expression of a renewed commitment or a new beginning.  In similar fashion, Red! has been given a new look and imbued with a new sense of commitment.

©2012,  Les Taylor Photography.
Used with permission from my friend, Les Taylor.

Over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to nurture my relationship with Jack—although neither of us knows quite how to label or characterize what exactly our relationship is.  Just over one year ago, Jack was given an amazing chance to move to Japan and accept employment with an architectural firm there.  Over such a great distance, and with the communicative obstacles that exist in our relationship when we are geographically separated, Jack and I have used written words (well, typed) to share with one another everything from personal successes and sadnesses to light humor and strange sightings.  My blog has been one of the tools I have used to share many of my thoughts, not only with Jack but with many of my other friends as well.

Just as a conversation will grow stale without new topics, a blog will grow stale over time without new content and new visual interest.  The new content was never really a problem, as I had blogged frequently up until this past April when I decided to take a break.  But the visual interest on the blog just wasn't there anymore, and the several edits and tweaks I had made were more bandages than permanent solutions.

Under the old design, even though the name was "Red!," there was very little of the actual color red to be found on the pages.  While I still think the old design was pretty, it didn't have any special meaning beyond that.  I began to wish that I could put some real symbolism into the design of my blog, something that could be uniquely me and would complement my text content.

Weeds

I'm not a person who expects to be surrounded by perfection all the time.  I mean, perfection is nice, but it's just not realistic to expect it all the time.  The yard at our house is a perfect example of this: the weeds that pop up in the yard don't bother me a bit.  But the last few days, as I would come and go from the house, I noticed that a rather large green weed was pushing it's way up through a crack in the sidewalk right beside my rose vine.  It bothered me, but I never noticed it at a time when I actually had time to stop and do anything about it.

And it's not at all uncommon for life to occur in very much the same way.

Regular readers of my blog may have noticed that there have been no new posts here since April 15.  For someone who had blogged every day of the year up until that point, a 17-day gap is sort of a big deal.  But my life, like the crack in my sidewalk, has been sprouting troublesome weeds of its own lately.

The weeds started when my most immediate boss at work arranged to take a leave of absence for personal reasons and then "resigned" instead without any warning or good-byes to those of us who worked for her, and with a barely-plausible story to the bigger bosses.  As a result of her departure, the teacher I work with for the majority of the day was given a temporary promotion to fill her vacated spot for the rest of the school year.  A teacher leaving the classroom meant that I got to go on a wild ride of substitute teachers in and out until we have finally found one who can stick around for the rest of the year.....I hope.  Shortly after, we got to live through the 2 weeks each year that are blocked out and rearranged for students across the state to take the FCAT standardized tests.  Additionally, we've gotten several new students into my classes these last few weeks, many of them bringing new and somewhat unpleasant challenges that I get to learn to cope with.  The former boss was also in charge of our school's Beta Club, and that has now become my responsibility as well.

Spring Equinox: Life in Balance

For generations, the arrival of Spring has signaled the start of a time for renewal, for cleaning, and for refreshing.  It's the time when we begin to shake off the winter gloom and turn our thoughts toward the bright happiness of lengthening days.

The onset of Spring is a time of balance, both universally and personally.  In our solar system, the first day of Spring is the day when the sun is most-directly above the equator—rather, the equator most-directly faces the sun—causing night and day to be equal in length.  Today I will live half my day in the light of the sun, the other half in nighttime darkness.

In some ways, I think my body sensed the equinox even while I was still asleep last night.  I awoke refreshed, for the first time in a long while, even though I got less actual sleep than on a typical night.  Upon waking, I felt instantly wide awake, determined to have a productive day, ready to get up and being Spring.

From time to time we all get that feeling that we are precariously perched on the edge of some unstable precipice.  Our footing wobbles and we know that at any minute one wrong step could plunge us over the side into some dark abyss from which there is no simple escape.  We are faced with hundreds of decisions every day, every one of which determines the course of our lives.  The goal, through all of our decision making, is to keep things balanced so that we can move toward our goals and accomplish those things which are most important to us.

So, how do we get there?  How do we achieve this all-important balance we all need?

Unfortunately, this is a question that we each must answer on our own.  I cannot tell you how to find your perfect balance point.  In truth, I am still searching for my own.  I do know that I feel like I'm moving in the right direction.  I have finally identified what things make me happy and what leaves me feeling empty.

What is it that brings balance into your life?  Identify it, then do whatever you must to move in the direction of your happiness.  Take advantage of the promise of Spring, the promise of new life all around you, and let the warm breezes of the season breathe renewed enthusiasm into your journey toward balance.

P52, Somewhat: Week 12, "Spring"

Do you ever get the feeling that the inanimate or non-sentient things around you are aware of what's going on in your life, and that they're working either for or against you?  Sure, we may know it's not true,  we as people sometimes can't help but imagine and project human qualities onto nonhuman things.

We get mad at the car when it won't start.  We beg the traffic signals to hurry up when we're running late.  We thank the cool breezes when we're outside on a hot day.  And though we know that none of these actions actually have an effect, many of us continue to do them.  And, as evidenced by the picture to the right—which I snagged from the  Facebook profile of my friend, Sarah C.—some of us even make a preemptive habit of being genuinely polite to some of the objects in our lives.

Personally, I have frequently felt like everything was going right for me lately.  Don't get me wrong, there have been some trying times too, but when things are good, lately, they're very very good.

This week's P52 post topic is "Spring," and Spring is a season which has arrived even earlier than usual in my part of the world.  All over the place, record high temperatures are being recorded.  Kaleb's back into wearing shorts to school nearly every day, and I'm digging the capri pants back out.