Tell me what you love about autumn…

I cannot let the season go by without commenting on the coming of autumn, as opposed to “fall” (which always seemed a bit less poetic to me).

Autumn is my favorite season because:

• there is a constant glorious cascade of falling leaves in variations of amber, gold and crimson

• I will catch the inevitable smoky scent from my husband starting the first fire of the season in our wood-burning stove as I arrive home any day now

• I can now wear a warm, cozy sweater that will hug you like a blanket all day

• a big mug of warm cocoa is there to cheer me from the very first sip

• there is a delightful array of pumpkins, corn stalks, hay bails and gourds decorating my neighbors’ porches

• we take walks thru our neighborhood, wading through great piles of rustling leaves that have yet to be raked.

• the air is crisp, Thanksgiving is on its way and there is a lot to be thankful for.

Tell me what you love about autumn…

Are you a shy and reluctant blogger?

I thought I had set up my blog as an outlet for expressing myself, both verbally and visually. But as the months have gone by, I have found that a recorded means of expression does not come to me as easily as I had thought it would.

And it bothers me.

I have created some art journals over the last few years, using color and form to express how I am feeling at any give time, but realize now that I rarely ever put anything down in words unless it was a quote from someone else that I identified with at the time. I was finding it difficult to be that open about my inner self, using my own words.

I shy away from opening myself up so completely to putting my personal thoughts down in permanent ink where anyone could potentially see it.

I wonder who else in blogland feels as intimidated by the indelible expression of their soul? Who else stifles the turmoil within?

I have many issues going on in my life right now and feel I should be able to speak about them here on my own blog, but I always find myself glossing over the bad or the sad in my life because I don’t want to bring anyone else down, or God forbid, cause them to feel sorry for me.

As a child I was taught to keep such things to yourself (we don’t even cry in front of others at funerals in my family), to not be a braggard, to be humble and well-behaved. So therefore, I find it hard to toot my own horn or to lay bare my heart.

Even now, as I write this, verbally baring my thought here in blogland for the first time, I wonder if anyone will bother to read past my first sentence to even get this far. Well, if you have, I thank you.

It is the forthcoming and cheerful blog that naturally attracts most of us, but sometimes it is the blogger that speaks the truth about who they really are and what they go through, good or bad, that I find I am drawn to personally. That blogger inspires me and reminds me that I am not alone in the challenges and inconsistencies of life.

We all experience the good and the bad. It is just all a matter of how we express it best, through art or through words.

Thank goodness that blogging allows us to choose which.