My kids were flying kites today. It was just a bit too windy, but they had the best time. My daughter threw her arm around me in a desire to share her euphoric feelings and burst into song “I love kites, they fly in the wind, I love trees, they have leaves that fall off, I love wind, I love you.”

Boo Ya!

This morning we had just finished reading out loud together “Mountain Born.” It has a sad ending (The main character’s beloved farm animal dies – sorry to anyone I gave this away for). I was so moved by my children’s responses it made me tear up. I love when life gives an opportunity for strong emotion, it can bring such peace afterwards.

We weren’t ready to move on with any other work, we were just sitting and letting the sadness of the story and the understanding of time passing settle around us. We were snuggled in the living room together, when we got to witness out the front window hundreds of blackbirds winging through the wheat field.

They moved like giant waves of feathers, hundreds at a time landing or taking off, then doing it again. Even from inside the house the noise was incredible, the squawking and the fluttering. It was misty, there are still some beautifully colored leaves hanging on the tree limbs of the hedges, the wheat is defiantly green sprouting in the field. It was one of those moments I will always remember, and I got to share with my children at the picture window.

We were all speechless for the five minutes we watched the birds go by.

That is why I love autumn. I love the smells, the colors, the bounty of harvest, putting the garden to bed for the winter, the holidays approaching, the crisp air and crisp vegetables. My memories of childhood autumns contain many similar moments to the kites and birds in the air I’ve described from today. I am so thankful to be living in a place and in a way that I can see my children making similar memories.