Saturday | Rain, Rain, Don't Go Away

 I sit cross-legged on the floor of my room, legs wrapped in my favorite sweat pants and my hair pulled back into it's usual messy bun. Despite the small chill in the air, I sit near the open window because it's raining outside and I want to hear the rain fall. Because I love rain. And this rain is special, because it's the first rain of the quickly changing season.

 You'd have to be blind to miss it, the no-longer-subtle clues that attest to the change of season, that magical transformation from summer into glorious fall. You can see it everywhere you look, from the seasonal displays being set up inside of department stores to the menu at Starbucks and of course, in the glorious outdoors itself:

 

The soft chill that is beginning to cling to the air that involuntarily draws you towards those cozy sweaters in your closet.

The skittering of leaves as they blow down a city street, catching in the gutters and crunching underfoot.

Harvest decorations appearing on the front porches and fences of houses everywhere.

 Harvest machinery out in the fields and orchards, bringing in the crops. Corn, almonds, pumpkins, and a little and a lot of everything else.

That certain smell that lingers in the air, of moist, rain-dampened earth combined with something that you just can't quite put your finger on.

Puddles in the street and stacks of firewood appearing along the outer walls of country houses.

 

Fall is so close that I can literally reach out and brush it with the tips of my fingers and I'm so excited. My head swirls with so many plans of how to drink it in to it's fullest potential, because I don't want to miss even a single moment. Time with family. Time with friends. Time with pumpkin spice lattes and caramel apple spice cider. Time wrapped up in my wool firefighter's blanket out on our back porch swing, watching the last of summer's sunsets fade on the horizon.

Fall: when magic feels the most believable.