One of Those Days

Remember that beautiful Autumn Blaze tree in our backyard I pictured below. Here's a reminder of it. Then, last week, Kansas winds came howling down from out of somewhere, maybe the Dakota prairies, and blew the leaves off in one day. Now we have many bare trees instead of only a few. Oh, it had to happen eventually. But all in one day? Below is another picture from another side. The Burr Oak tree in the background still has plenty of leaves, but it isn't as showy. I'm trying to adjust to bare trees, believe me I am. We've got to plant an evergreen in our yard.

It's one of those gray, cloudy, drizzly, chili fall days which I used to love because I knew it was time to cocoon. But now, I'm just kind of in limbo until the sun comes out again. Is it an age thing? Fall and Winter are reminders of what phase of my life I'm in and about to enter. You know, the last half or one-third, which if I'd live another half of my life I could live another 60 years, or another 30 if I'm in my last third. That's quite a few years.

I'm not one of those who believes that life just throws things at us. In most things we have a choice, and in others we at least have a choice how we're going to react to what happens. "Depression is a choice," it's been said (A.B. Curtiss). Maybe like the trees who lose their leaves and rest during the winter months, depression is a kind of rest. A time of recuperation from the activities and pressures that the sunny, longer days of summer impose upon us.

"There is a time...," said Solomon in Ecclesiastes 3. Cocooning may not be such a bad idea. Now is the time, after a rough presidential campaign, and an economic roller coaster, after a summer of daylight savings time, to put aside our striving and sit down in an overstuffed chair to read a good book. Have a happy read on a cloudy day and don't feel guilty about it to the point of depression. Just enjoy and rest.