harvest.

( asher with apples, september 2012  / tree, recent )

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Fall is just around the corner and contrary to popular blogging belief, it's honestly a really hard transition for me. Fall used to be my favorite season and it definitely brings back good memories of years past; hoodie sweatshirts, cool evening football games, walking to the neighborhood Starbucks, holding hands with gloves and cuddling with a boy I hoped to marry. There are still nice things about fall, I suppose. But as the years have passed and I've grown in age and in responsibility, fall has come to mainly mean this: warm weather is over and winter is coming fast.
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I really, truly do not enjoy winter. It's dark and long and full of dreadful things like toes that never warm up and being stuck in the house with two wild-banshee boys. All roads will turn into black dirty mush , my hair will be wildly static and my hands will be forever dry-heat-air dry. I'll force my feet out of flip flops and into my moccasin boots, prepared to earn their yearly salt stain stripes. As usual, winter isn't going to ask my opinion; it will just proceed to dump it's frozen, miserable feelings on me regardless. 

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First though, we are getting this short little window of still warm, okay feeling days. I'm trying though failing daily, to find that little bit of peace and joy in the harvest season that is now: an old dreamy photo of my little boy eating an apple; leaning back and finding the beauty in the changing trees right by my house, shopping for warm clothes and finding the absolutely perfect pair of black pants.

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For me, the season that is here right now, is just another reminder that the good and the bad and the ugly will ebb and flow whether we like it or not. I guess the goal might be to strive to find that bit of plenty to hang onto. So that when times are dark and rough, I can close my eyes and grasp that feeling of lying in the grass on a hot summer day, still smell the leather interior of my dad's convertible, and still see that fair-skinned baby picking up apples one by one in the backyard long after he's grown.

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I guess I'll just keep moving and living as the world spins me into winter, whether I like it or not. I'll keep trying hard to gather my harvest little by little, memory by memory, day by day. Winter may freeze things up for a while but it can't take away these good, happy things, always glowing summertime warm in my heart. 

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<3

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"Harvest" is the September writing prompt of The Mommy Blogger Collective. In addition to a monthly writing prompt, the collective hosts a monthly blogger featurette. This month we are featuring Courteney of The Titled Blog. A few words from Courteney --- Hello! I’m Courteney from “The Titled Blog” I live up in Canada (in Abbotsford, British Columbia - just East of Vancouver) with my husband, one year old daughter Lucy, a pug named Minnie and an angry flame point siamese cat named Bigsby. My blog has evolved over the last 7 years from random rants and social commentary to lifestyle and now most recently to being a mom. My daughter was born with a lot of health problems and I often write about the challenges that have come with having a baby that has spent a good chunk of her first year in and out of the hospital and how to deal with those challenges head on. When I’m not blogging, I work as a photographer with my own business (Courteney Rodda Photography) sing in my jazz band “Courteney Rodda and the Other Guys” and most recently I am sewing for an awesome local company making baby moccasins called “Minimoc” You can also find me on Instagram, where I post too many pictures of my daughter, dog and cat. /// The Mommy Blogger Collective /// Christina, Courteney, Dena, Erica, Erin, Gillian, Katie, Misty, Nicole, and Renée. ///