Fall

Every window in my home is open. The air conditioners are turned off. We're wearing jeans and t-shirts. It's quiet outside. I love fall. It's a calming, familiar love of mine. I used to adore fall because it was when school started. I loved the smell of new books, the look of newly sharpened pencils and the promise of all those blank pages in the notebooks.

The last bit of August, when I was shopping in Target, I smiled as I was surrounded by moms with back to school lists. It was like a scavenger hunt. One mom would shriek to another mom, "Where do you find the crayola #4 thingamagig? Mrs. Third Grade teacher said Little Johnny must have them for the first day of school!"

"They're sold out here, but they have them at Walmart!" the other mom yelled. Before you knew it, the first mom grabbed her three kids, her scavenger hunting list, her wits and started running to the car.

Moving away from the school supplies, I turned down the aisle to look at the sheets that were on sale, only to be face to face with a wall of college students looking for, what seemed like anything that could be used as fluorescent decoration for their dorms. I was surprised to see that moms still had lists and students were still following them around trying to put items into the shopping cart that weren't on that list from their university. I guess things don't really change from pre-school to college...not really, anyway.

I still love the thought of those books, pencils and all that paper. I love fall.