Can you believe it's October? We're in the 4th quarter! The year is winding down! How did we get here so fast?
Sometime in September, the morning light changes. Just like that. I am always amazed when it happens! One day the sun is rising in a certain place and the next day the sun is rising in a different place. The angle and color of the light changes. The sun is rising later and setting sooner. The sunrise time is so late now that by the time I get home from my early morning walks, the sky is just barely beginning to brighten. I miss those sunrises!
Down here, in my neck of the woods, we don't get the brilliant display of color that fall brings most of the rest of the northern hemisphere! We do get cooler temperatures but the color show waits till November.
We do get the man-made displays of color! I saw my first official Halloween decorated yard during the final week of September! The grocery stores are filled with pumpkins and cinnamon scented pine cones and the pumpkin patches are open.
The thing about fall is, it feels like suddenly time speeds up! The rest of the year is going to fly by! Tomorrow I'll be opening the door to trick-or-treaters and the next day I'll be singing Auld Lang Syne!
Every year is like that and every year I try to make it slow down! To purposefully enjoy every moment and not rush into the next one. To take in every sight and sound as one holiday turns into another. It doesn't help that the stores have all the decorations out! Last week at Hobby Lobby I walked down an aisle and went from pumpkins and witches to pilgrims and turkeys to Santa and trees and plastic champagne flutes!
Why does it all have to be out at the same time? Why can't we enjoy each one on it's own?
I know that if I don't get that cute little tree I saw last week very soon, it will be gone. (I did that one year, I got a Christmas decoration early then forgot I had it till after the New Year when I was putting everything away!)
Once again, I'm going to try to take it slow. To enjoy the little things. To squeeze every minute from one season to the next. To get together with people and share all that is good about the season. To stay out of the last minute shopping/Black Friday frenzies!
As photographers, we can capture the moments. We can freeze time in a photograph, forever, to enjoy and savor. We can capture new memories of the sights of the seasons as they unfold. That's going to be my way to slow it down.
Grab your camera, friends! We're going to have a spectacular time!
Our monthly theme is a perfect way to get started! Sunshine and shadows! There is a lot of that in fall! Share your sunshine and shadow photos in the flickr gallery!
Are you ready for these last 3 months?
xo
11 comments:
Yes, it's so easy to gulp down the season all at once and forget to savor each bite! I'm with you... let's slow down!
Oh yes, time does seem to speed up this time of the year...it is difficult to savor the moments when everything in the stores around us seems to be moving us to the next "holiday" the next "season" before we can enjoy what is here today. Thanks for the reminder, Linda, to slow down and enjoy the moments in the right here and now.
I'm all in favour of the slowing down. Where do I sign? Great post.
You are so right that once we get to October, the rest of the year seems to speed by! I'm not sure whose idea it was to put all the major holidays into the last couple of months of the year but I sure wish they were spread out a bit more. And the retailers starting to display Christmas items in September is just wrong! Last year Nordstrom had signs in their stores that they would not be displaying Christmas things until after Thanksgiving, that they would be focusing on one holiday at a time. What a refreshing idea! So we must do our best to slow things down and enjoy every minute on this speeding train of the last quarter of the year. Thanks for the great reminder to slow things down with photography, the best way to savor the moment!
Have you ever watched those rocket car races, that deploy the parachute behind them to slow them down? I have a couple of those on, trying my best to slow it all down!! lol
I was going to share the same story about Nordstrom that Terri did. (I love their marking ideas) I wish we could slow it down too! BUT in the mean time, like you we will photograph and at least be able to look back and slow it down in hind sight. I love your acorns... wish we had them here!
Hugs
Here's to slowing things down! There's been two isles of Halloween candy and Halloween "stuff" in the grocery store where I shop since the middle of the summer! (If I bought Halloween candy that early I'd surely have it eaten by the end of August!) haha Photography is a good way to slow things down. Good reminder to make time for ourselves to do just that.
So very true, Linda! It seems that from Labor Day on, our calendar is compressed into one huge glob. But, as photographers, we have the perfect tool for slowing things down. I find that with my camera in my hands, I do indeed slow down and live in the moment. Ahhhh! Then ... later ... I get to relive those moments.
FOL Family ... thanks to Linda ... we have a mission ... slow down the treadmill!
:-D
Perfectly expressed!
That's truly one of the many reasons I love photography. To do it correctly, you must slow down. Remember Ansel Adams had one shot to get it right - he had to consider everything before pushing that shutter. That whole thought process for me is my meditation - I am engaged in the porcess - and there's nothing more relaxing
You are so right! Take the time to slow down and enjoy it season by season. I want fall to last as long as possible so I'm ready to savor every photographic opportunity!
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