Welcome Home

Our yard had the fall welcome mat out. Man alive, a lot of leaves jumped off the trees while we were gone! Guess I know what I am doing this weekend. The leaves are at peak here now, funny that they were past peak when we went south to Massachusetts. It was a beautiful ride home even though it was raining.
This week being peak week in New Hampshire has me contemplating life and the seasons we go through. I will be thirty-seven in a little over a week. When I was a teenager I couldn't even imagine being that OLD! Nor did I have any plan for being that age, because let's face it I didn't actually think I'd live to the ripe old age of thirty-five much less anything beyond! I think Art and I are in the summer of our life. It isn't new, or formative, but it is growing and comfortable. We know where we are going, and at the same time we are storing away and planning for the seasons beyond.
I watch my in laws, and the pets we got when we first married, and first moved to New Hampshire enter the latter stages in life. The winter- if you will. If our lives are fleeting how do animals feel?!?
Time is so short and right now we have so many roads in front of us still. Which to take? If we take one, what are we leaving behind? What will we miss? I am glad to have the opportunity to choose, but terrified I will take a mis-step and mess the whole thing up! On the other hand, it is good right now. Enjoy the moment, the day, and go with the flow. Everything for a reason.
We really enjoyed this time with Art's folks. We were a little road weary from so much travel this year, but we looked forward to this trip to spend time with them. It is not an opportunity that comes up often anymore, for sure. It is hard to watch how difficult the seemingly simple tasks have become. Meals took a great deal of coordination and effort. You have to find a place that allows room to load and unload, has a ramp to get in and out, and a table that can accomodate a wheelchair. My MIL has a bladder of steel also. Good thing, because handicapp stalls just don't accomodate her needs. Growing old is tough. We did enjoy every minute we got to spend with them, though!

Now, back to work! It's still raining so I don't have to rake today, but the stack of mail is calling me...