Dear Reader:

It is hard to believe that it has been a year since I was making the daily trek (for three months) to St. Francis/Roper hospital in West Ashley and my physical therapy treatments for lymphedema.

As time-consuming as these treatments were…traveling back and forth each day from October to Christmas…I did get to meet Chrissy, my physical therapist, and we became good friends. She was a sweetheart.

The daily drive also provided time for me to reflect on the seasonal changes as seen through my windshield. (Going up the “Scenic Highway” provided some beautiful moments and musings.)

You might remember the falling leaves’ “storm” I ran into one morning. The beautiful colored fall leaves were falling faster than my windshield wipers could dispatch them off the windows and hood. I finally pulled off the highway onto a neighborhood road and took a moment to just enjoy and play in the leaves.

Joan emailed me this original (title) painting (last year) that she drew and she thought captured the incident… it did/does perfectly. I was surrounded by a cascade of swirling, falling leaves of every color.

I had fallen into the proverbial “rabbit hole” and it was magnificent. Joan captured the “magic ” of the moment in the beauty of the leaves!

The other week, when I was strolling with Jakie on our tree safari, I noticed when the breeze picked up and leaves would flutter to the ground…Jakie always looked up into the skies to see where they were coming from.

You could almost see the moment when he made the connection between trees and falling leaves. The beginning of many every day epiphanies that will come his way through life.

All little children, not only make and appreciate that connection…they revere the beauty within each leaf.

When Eva Cate was visiting Joan last Thanksgiving they were walking through downtown Huntsville when Eva Cate spotted this leaf and thought it was the most beautiful leaf in the world. She had to bring it home. Joan sent me the photo. It was the most beautiful leaf in the world, Eva Cate!

Last November Rutledge came to visit and he had a ball playing in the leaves falling off the Bradford Pear tree….he, too, kept looking up to see when the next cascade of leaves would fall.

Go back to your childhood, now, and re-think how magical it must be to know that the sky opens up (when the wind blows) and beautiful items called leaves fall down on your head and all around…just for you to play in. God’s toys for little boys…and girls! * Rutledge, of course, put the leaves in his dump truck.

Several months ago…Honey sent me this quote from an article by Kim Ode called “Giving Thanks.” (I love this comment)

“Being on the receiving end of someone’s thanks has us walking on those special puffy clouds that only autumn skies can make and fill.”

Don’t we know that God smiles when little children reach up in the air to catch the next “toy”…the next leaf falling from heaven? The smiles on their little faces are all the thanks He needs.

So until tomorrow….Let us continue as children of God to look up and count our blessings…they are as abundant as falling leaves in autumn and then let us smile our appreciation for the beauty of the earth falling down around us.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Mollie hosted another fund-raiser to give money for breast cancer last evening at Momma Goldberg’s Deli.

Megan McComas was the Stella & Dot representative at the fundraiser with a portion of the sales going for breast cancer research.

I know Megan through my niece Carrie so it was great to see her again.

Mandy and I took Eva Cate and she thoroughly enjoyed being included as one of the girls  picking out Stella/Dot jewelry from the sample pamphlets. Eight more “girls” came after Mandy, Eva Cate, and I had to leave (after the group picture)….Mollie said it was a great success. That was very sweet Mollie and thank you for hosting this event in my honor.