Welcome October!

Tony gathering the October leaves in our yard.

(Disclaimer) Let me start off by saying this particular blog post came off as sort of a writing assignment that was prompted by a friend who instructed a Qoya Dance and Writers Workshop that I attended. I apologize for grammatical errors and run on sentences. This particular blog subject has nothing to do with my business and everything to do with creativity, which in turn helps me with my business…I think. So in advance to warn you, this is more of a reflection, my thoughts on a season and the need to help change my perspective on it as well as put pen to paper. Even though this subject is not about a service we offer or a product we sell, please come check us out at Aqua Serene Wellness. I can promise the sharing of knowledge, professional attention, possibly some spiced tea, conversation, a toasty warm Infrared SOQI Spa session and of course love. Here goes….

Welcome October!

It is officially Fall and the smell of wet leaves, apple pie, pumpkins and nutmeg seem to fill the senses. It is a time of year that nature tells us to begin to look within. Time to rest, to reflect, and to slow down some.

I have never been a huge fan of Fall. I don’t like the cold rain, never-ending wet leaves and sweet gum pods all over my driveway and yard. Who on earth thinks it is a good idea to plant sweet gum trees near a driveway or house is beyond me? They belong in the woods, or in a yard beyond the reach of gutters and sidewalks. Stepping on a sweet-gum pod barefoot is akin to stepping on a Lego in the dark! Oh, and my personal opinion of Pumpkin Spiced Latte…yuck!

I miss my flip flops, the smell fresh mowed grass, rose bushes blooming and tending my garden. I miss pitchers of sun tea, the dance of the firefly and the song of the tree frogs and crickets chirping on a hot summer night. I miss the warm sun beating down on my skin, driving with my sunroof open and sitting on the deck of the local neighborhood restaurant overlooking Eagle Creek Reservoir having a glass of wine.

Fall always has brought with it a sense of doom and gloom for me.

As a kid, we didn’t go back to school until after Labor Day. Fall crept in fast after the newness of seeing old friends, unmarked notebooks and a fresh box of crayons wore off. It meant homework, darkening evening skies, going to bed early, getting up in the dark for breakfast, eating a Pop-tart. Digging for the super ball in the bottom of a box cereal before my brother beat me to it. He still managed to get the prize by pulling my hair until I surrendered it up.

Bus rides to school for me were almost 45 minutes long one way, and yes I walked quite a ways to the bus stop..uphill in the snow! The classroom smelled of chalk, dusty books, pencil shavings and blue mimeograph ink on freshly printed assignments. The weekly reader and math puzzles kept us quiet while the “teacher that no one wanted to get” sat at her desk longing for her long lost college days. The best days were always book fair days and classroom parties with cupcakes and foaming sherbert punch.

School lunches consisted of a lukewarm mini carton of milk, something that resembled a brown cow pile that they called Swiss steak over instant mash potatoes.  A pale green square of peas sat in one corner of the tray and a glop of apple crisp that was far from crisp on the other. My mom worked late nights so no one packed my lunch. I would envy my friends with the Partridge Family lunch box harboring a cheese sandwich, ding dongs and thermos of red Kool-aide.

I would eat a bite or two of my designated school lunch ensconced upon an unappetizing flesh colored tray, suck up warm milk in a paper straw that collapsed after the second sip and then fill the carton back up with the peas so I could be excused from the table. If you didn’t eat the vegetable you had to sit there until everyone else was released. If it was freezing cold outside I left the peas, succotash, lima beans or steamed carrots in plain sight. Less time shivering outside at recess! I would feel my stomach growl on the drizzle covered playground, the swings were damp, the slide was wet and the monkey bars were dangerous to navigate in Mary Jane’s and a jumper dress. The boys didn’t care, they wore slacks, us girls could wear tights under our dress of course but the damp air slid right up those baggy things to your ruffled day of the weeks panties!

High school of course changed a majority of that scene. Fall became more sports oriented, pep rallies, spirit week, bonfires, parties, driving to school, cutting out for lunch without getting caught or buying al-carte in the cafeteria. Jumper dresses were exchanged for mini skirts, fringed vests, bell bottoms and cowl necked sweaters. Recess was no longer an option so we did our best to slip outside between classes or after lunch to sneak a puff or two. Halloween no longer meant Trick-or-Treat, it meant haunted houses and sending October out with a monster bash!

Fall is the season of my birth, I am an October child, a perfectly balanced Libra Ha! I lost my father in the fall of 2011,  and my maternal grandmother died four days after my 10th birthday. It was 1970 and she had bought me my first pair of real panty hose, they were just gaining popularity in the US and since mini skirts were all the rage they became a necessary accessory. I wore those brand new panty hose to her funeral, she would have loved that. She knew she was leaving and I desperately wanted her to stay. The Universe had other plans. She was so excited to give me those panty hose and to this day when I wear panty hose (not often I might add) I think of her. Panty hose and I are not friends, either I get the size that has left me with about 6 inches of webbed space between my thighs and crotch making walking like a cowboy a real thing, or the next size up which brings the waistband up over my bra and still  wrinkled nylon at the knees and ankles.

This October I decided to do this mantra: “I will embrace the change of the seasons. I will rejoice in the fact the colored leaves are natures fall flowers. That the rain quenches the soil for its long winter rest and that the smell of burning leaves won’t make my eyes itch or my nose run. I will trade flip flops for fun boots, roses for apples, and sun tea for hot cider. I will listen for the crow’s conversations and bird songs at my feeders”.  I still will avoid panty hose and I will never like pumpkin spiced lattes, but that is OK!

I hope you will join me in welcoming October with joy and reflection, and please remind me to thank my lucky stars that red Kool-aide, Ding Dongs and cheese sandwiches are no longer my cravings for lunch and that David Cassidy is 66 years old. I still believe that lima beans, succotash and peas belong hidden in the milk carton, and if you ever see me in a mini skirt with a webbed crotch pair of panty hose showing from beneath the hem line blame my grandma!

Come visit us at Aqua Serene Wellness. We are located in Carmel Indiana (home of the never ending round about) 317-564-0930 Comments are welcomed and encouraged. If you enjoyed my post please share it. Thanks for reading along.