It's late October and snowing . . .

It's the day before Halloween, the colorful leaves are mostly gone from the trees, and it's snowing. The brown oak leaves hang heavy on their branches, weighted down by the freezing rain/slush/snow mixture that's been falling all morning. It's a preview of the months to come, with the colors outside muted to grays, browns, whites, the occasional deep green of the fir and spruce trees. 
Winter is not my favorite time of year, yet I am ready to accept the slowing down of life that occurs as we move into this colder season. It's been a hectic, stressful year so far, with several deaths of friends and family and the loss of life in Lahaina, Hawaii and in Lewiston, Maine. Plus, all the other mass shootings in the country so far and the wars in Ukraine and the Gaza area. It's a lot to process, so I am ready to retreat a bit from the world and work on writing, weaving, and surface pattern designs. I'll play with my grandchildren, read good books, and eat the food that I've stored from my garden that I'll turn into soups and stews and stir-fries. I'll bake cookies and muffins and pies and a loaf of bread or twenty and plan for the holidays and wish all my children could be home for Christmas. 
I'll find ways to keep moving forward, physically, mentally, emotionally, while I wait for the days to stop turning shorter and darker and swing back toward the light, which gets noticeably brighter as we edge out of January and into February. It's months away, yet the time will go by quickly, just as this year has gone by quickly, too quickly. 
Life is not a dress rehearsal, so celebrate every moment because we never get them back. 
Stay safe out there on Halloween and remember to eat the chocolate first!