The jewel of the year is in the wings...

It's in the very dawn..that fog, misty windows and hushed dew left on Summer's last flowers.  September arrives, and the land welcomes the promise of cool nights, ripening apples, the end of hot, dry days.

Still many times are left when we can meet outdoors in front of the chiminea, run outside in bare arms, flip on the air conditioner to temper the heat. Huge spider webs stretch their magnificent lace...  perfect timing for an unlucky, late August moth.

The dreamers and mystics begin their count toward the queen of festivals, All Hallow's Eve.  And indoors ---- amber and scarlet swirl, candlelight easing toward Fall's earlier sunsets, setting the stage for the darker season to come.

When school began without me, I chose my first day to begin the careful process of packing away the florals, the flags, the summer watermelon pottery, and the other touches of warm weather.  I brought out a few Autumn favorites, laid a pretty harvest table with Mom's dolls poised center stage  Then Mother Nature decided to pay a clever trick on the already parched, scorched, and dust-strangled Midwest.   A solid week of 100° days and sultry nights screamed the protest to the end of summer without a fight...

We wait for news of our crop, but everywhere heads are shaking, eyes look sad.  I remember those eyes from my father and grandfather, generations depending on the land and on the mercies of weather, rain, and sunlight.  I think I love Autumn most because its coming brings Harvest.  What's done is done.  More time at home.  More contentment and brighter moonlight, it seems.

And though the wheel of the year must turn twenty more days before the Autumnal Equinox, Mom's home awaits the glory of Fall, Our Heavenly Father's jewel of the year.