A beautiful Fall day.

Leaves covering the yard. A full acre of shin-deep, crinkly colors. In a week or so, I’ll be raking and burning, but right now I love them.

Pumpkins wonderfully carved during a tremendous evening with the family. The kids selected their own pumpkins, designed the carving, and did most of the work (minus any potentially dangerous stuff, of course!).
They even picked out a tiny little pumpkin for the dog.

Fresh chocolate chip cookies, right out of the oven. (Forget the “no sugar” challenge my wife and I are having – it’s Sunday, and there are fresh cookies!)

A few errands to run on my own, I left the family to their own devices for a couple of hours. While driving, I marveled at the amazing colors and the perfect chill in the air. Also had time to reflect on a few recent events from the last couple of days that were so good, just thinking about them made the day better:

Thursday – at Williamston Theatre: A great house for the show, but 3 related events were just wonderful. 1) 3 or 4 couples who’d never been to our theatre came in, saw the theatre and commented on how much they loved the layout, the space, the building, etc… Then after the show, they ALL said “We’re so glad we came! We’ll be back!” or “We’re coming back, no question!”, or some variation on that. 2) An older couple, after the show, came up to me and said “This is the first play we’ve seen in almost 20 years – it was wonderful, we can’t wait to come back for the next one.” 3) 4 Teenagers, maybe 15 to 17 years old, came with a group of adults. After the show, they came out speaking in teenage-ese, “That was totally sweet! What an awesome show! Dude, we totally gotta come back for the Christmas one.” It was an incredibly moving, affirming evening – so much positive energy – and tremendously rewarding: those people came to be moved, and we accomplished it.

Friday night, we had one of the most amazing sunsets ever! Just gorgous – bright reds and oranges,fading to pinks and blues, filling the sky, the trees reflecting the light. We went out into the yard to just admire it for about 20 minutes. Cars were stopping in front of our house to take pictures of the sunset over the cornfield directly across from our house. Standing there, the crisp fall smell was in the air, the sky and trees were filled with color that made your jaw drop… a wonderful moment sitting in the yard, taking the time to soak in and appreciate, with the whole family, just how beautiful the world can really be.

Saturday night, we watched Muppets In Space with the kids. It was one of those odd realizations: My kids are so young (or I’m so old?…nah, let’s go with them being young), that they aren’t familiar with the Muppets. After the fun we all had with the movie, we’ve vowed to have more Muppet Nights at home!

So all these things, and more, going through my head as I’m enjoying a spectacular Autumn Sunday.

Some days, I think, are God’s way of saying “Yep – it’s tough right now. But here’s what’s worth fighting for. Keep it up.”

I’m very thankful for those days.