"Bouquets of Sharpened Pencils"

I love fall. Sitting at my computer listening to the sounds of children at the bus stop waiting for their first day of school gives me a sense that all is right with the world. Labor Day has always been more like New Year's to me than, well the the day we change the year on the calendar. It signifies new beginings, and school supplies, and apple season, not to mention the some of mother nature's most beautiful canvases.

Why do I get excited over school supplies? Probably the same reason I love the smell of new books. It is a harbinger of potential. Blank, crisp pages thrill me with the thought of what might soon fill them. An uncracked spine on a book fills me with exhilaration of things to be learned or stories yet to unfold. I believe that after years of schooling, Western culture approaches things with minds most open in the fall.

Apple season means cider, apple cinnamon raisin bread, apple-batter pudding, and apple pies ~some of the most comforting foods I know. Heartier meals are on the way.

It also means a crispness returns to the air and the crackle of beautiful foliage... and sweaters.

I can't wait to drink it all in.