To everything there is a season…

Oh October, how I love thee. It truly is a gorgeous month. I feel that October is the start of the new fall season. The temperature is still pleasant and apples, raspberries, pumpkins and other yummy squashes are ripe and ready to harvest. The leaves on the trees are exchanging their faithful green color for something with more of a pop, like yellow, pink, red, orange and fuchsia. I love the change in seasons and the beauty that comes with it.

As I am en route to pick up kids from school or shuttle them to chess club or soccer, I often see many of my friends at the playground with their smaller children, talking to other mothers and having a serene time playing leisurely with their kids. Sigh. I think back on those times in my life. They were good times.

My reminiscing is sweetly overshadowed by my daughter, Amelia, singing the Colors Song, in Spanish. Almost as soon as she stops, Conrad tells me of his latest wildlife adventure he is planning and Riley asks with an eager look, “Can I come? I’ll be your sidekick right?”

“Me too!” Amelia chimes in.

“Me!” Quinn says with his hand in the air.

Conrad’s eyes brighten and he says with much intensity, “Oh ya, we’ll need everybody!”

I smile and know that this is a good season of my life too.

In October 2008, Pres. Monson stated, “Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey, and share our love with friends and family. One day each of us will run out of tomorrows.”

I think the tendency for most of us is to worry about or eagerly anticipate the future or long for the pleasantries of the past. My children are especially excited for the future. Amelia has taken to drawing fabulously bright pictures of the big house we will live in one day, Conrad has his hobby farm planned out in our future back yard and Riley can’t wait for an official Star Wars themed room. I will admit that it is fun to “dream of my mansion above,” but shouldn’t the majority of our time be spent enjoying the present?

At the most recent General Relief Society Meeting, Pres. Uchtdorf told us to “forget not to be happy now.” He goes on to say, “The happiest people I know are not those who find their golden ticket; they are those who, while in pursuit of worthy goals, discover and treasure the beauty and sweetness of the everyday moments. They are the ones who, thread by daily thread, weave a tapestry of gratitude and wonder throughout their lives. These are they who are truly happy.”

Just as this glorious summer has changed to beautiful fall, so do our lives change from one stage of life to the next. In Ecclesiastes 3:1 is reads, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” It is my hope for myself, my family and all of you my friends, that we will remember that each season of our lives has meaning. That we will look around at what is going on right now and be happy in these moments and thank God that we can be alive to experience them.