Playing Fall Cards

Summer days are hibernating days for me because of my work schedule. My hibernation time has come to an end with the end of summer. Even while I mourn the end of these hibernation days for this year, I know good things, better things, are coming...the chill in the night air and the evening thunderstorms that come each night tell me fall will soon be here. The mountains are already playing the fall card...changing from their glorious summer purple to the wonderful and warm autumn shades a few weeks early this year, (usually this starts two weeks into September and is a rite of passage from one season to another).
So fall is almost here and I anticipate her with bated breath. I will play every fall card that I have;  

I vow to... 

...collect leaves for bouquets, walk more and wear jackets on my walks, drink hot chocolate and herbal tea, watch more sunsets, notice star changes in the sky, and make my evenings all about reading and writing. 

(May be a bit early for blowing leaves, but this is the first card I play)

"Blowing Leaves," by Arthur Rackham

Steel Myself With Words

Guts don't come so easily to some of us as they do to others.
I wish I had a stomach of steel, and courage as strong and wide as a bridge.
Since I don't, I have to steel myself with words meant to spur me on.
 Stretching your wings outside of your comfort zone is not easy in real life. It takes fortitude. The heart to act is inside all the while, but you have to take that very first step, which for me is the hardest part.

One foot in front of the other
If you have the guts to try
The whole wide world is waiting
From the russet earth to the blue sky
Time to stretch your wings and fly high
~Bookishkind

Beata Beatrix by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

After too long in the nest, in this case, my comfort zone, the wings are restless and unproven. Stretching is long overdue, but made awkward from disuse. I will find the strength to act somehow. I know I will for endurance is my stronghold.

Not A Single Rose

The rose bush that survived from two years ago is growing like a weed in the backyard. But other than a first bloom in the spring, there has not been a single rose bloom all summer. While I have the love of the bloom part down, I am still figuring out the ins and outs, temperaments and whims of the rose bush. There is one thing known for sure however, ... it's just not right to not have roses blooming in the summer.

These will do just fine.

From OpenMintNet

John William Waterhouse

How cunningly nature hides every
wrinkle of her inconceivable antiquity
under roses and violets and morning dew!
-Ralph Waldo Emerson