Cold weather.

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Here in Ontario, it snowed the other night - big, wet flakes that immediately got me dreaming about cold cozy evenings and the Christmas season and everything winter brings. Of course, it's still only late-October, not really time to be wholeheartedly welcoming winter yet...but it's edging closer!

Although I have my favorites, there is so much to appreciate about every season. I love the colours and scents and moods of Autumn at it's peak, but there is beauty too, in the closing of this season - in the cooler days and cold, damp nights, in the delicate poetry of bare black branches against a pearl sky.

I like wearing warm sweaters and having to turn the heat on in my car, I like the excuse to enjoy more hot drinks, cupping my hands around a steaming mug of chai tea or hot chocolate. I love cold, dreary weather that invites me to stay inside - an evening spent trying a new recipe and devouring good books, an afternoon watching a movie and snuggling with little nieces who compete madly for lap space.

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I'm reminded (by this report that brings a gentle but needed rebuke - why can I purchase a new winter coat without thinking but feel like providing for another would be a sacrifice?) that it's a privilege to enjoy the cold because I can be warm...

Changing seasons, precious bits of life, beauty around me...gifts, all from above.

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(Photo my own)

I'm loving this season...

Dear October,

I wish you would stay a while. Like, longer than a month.

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I enjoy your relatives, September and November, but I'm particularly fond of you.

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The other evening, I surprised my younger brothers with an invitation to ramble in some nearby woods with me. I am often too busy to spend time with them, and it was a treat. I loved the way you wrapped them in amber light and whisked them down the trail, chasing adventure.

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I love your blue skies and your shades of purple and your sharp, clean air, smelling of woodsmoke.

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I like the way your wind sounds like whispered secrets in the cornstalks.

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You make good company with pumpkin-spice scented candles and scattered pine cones and a pot of loose-leaf tea on a cold night.

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Thanks for making me slow down and appreciate the beauty my God creates, a season that speaks of endings and tiptoes towards death but promises a new beginning and life abundant in the spring to come.

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Like I said, you're welcome to stay longer, but maybe your fleeting treasures are all the more precious because of their brevity.

Sincerely,

Stephanie

(Photos my own)