someone’s gotta love them…

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”
Elie Wiesel

(an heirloom pumpkin / Julie Cook / 2016)

So to take my mind off of my life’s never-ending train wreck…
trying to delve out into something that I use to actually enjoy doing…
I thought I’d force myself to go do something that I once really looked forward to….

Since it is Fall, why not do something fallish…?

You know….
as in a change of season, a change of pace….??

And by the way, it is Fall right?

If it is actually Fall, and actually just a few days away until October….
why am I still wearing shorts, dripping sweat, while the thermometer reads 93?

Why are football games still hot as blazes as players fall out one by one due to
heat related ailments?
Why is it still so dry that my entire yard is now dead?
Why have I not wanted to even ponder the thought of “sweater weather”
let alone putting on something other than shorts,
a tank top and sandals…????

I did however spy the pumpkins arriving at the farmer’s market..
I use to get so excited when the pumpkins began arriving…
That meant Fall…
Cool nights
Crisp days
Warm drinks and the inviting colors of Fall….

I have also noticed that the grocery stores are filling their shelves
with caramel for the apples, Indian corn and all sorts of colorful pumpkins and gourds….

At least somebody is thinking Fall!!!!
It’s just that someone has forgotten to tell this unrelenting Summer that it’s time to GO!

So in the mindset of Fall and doing something that once brought happiness,
I decided I’d go get some pumpkins.
Because once upon a time, I use to like decorating for Fall…

However that whole decorating thing ain’t happening this year…
as I am just not in the mood….
Decorating requires a good bit of movement and time…
two things that are in short supply at the moment.

But pumpkins, I could muster getting a couple of pumpkins…

I found them…
I saw them…
I loved them…
I had to have them…
I bought them…

And in a word, they are…
unique…

Happily I brought them home and lined them up and down the backsteps
and out by the edge of the garage.
All festive like.
I added a couple of those cinnamon scented straw brooms by the back door
and was actually quite pleased that I had made the effort and had succeeded at said effort.

That was until my husband came home wanting to know why I’d bought the ugliest pumpkins
I could obviously find…..
…That surely they can’t really be real pumpkins…
Because who’s ever seen a green lumpy pumpkin or one that looks like it has peanut tumors….??

So much for decorating for Fall…..

He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings;
he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;
Daniel 2:21

southern nostalgia

“Some days in late August at home are like this, the air thin and eager like this, with something in it sad and nostalgic and familiar…”
― William Faulkner

(photograph: abandoned house, Troup Co, Georgia / Julie Cook / 2013)

Driving through the rural areas in our state, be it north or south, the sights all look very similar…fields, cows, crops, and most often, abandoned barns, outbuildings and houses. My husband has often told me I needed to start taking pictures of old barns as they are a dying breed. I’m beginning to think that much of the old rural ways are actually the dying breed.

This country grew up as a nation on the backs of the farmer…the small as well as the larger farms. There is something most satisfying about heading to a farmer’s market or fruit stand to purchase field fresh vegetables and fruits… that is if you don’t have your own garden out back. I think it’s almost humorous, this sudden massive fascination of ours— this huge surge in support for the farm to table movement and the Slow food movement. It’s as if farm fresh food has been suddenly discovered as some new novel idea… as it is now in vogue to eat at restaurants that tout farm fresh and locally sourced foods.

My grandmother, were she still alive, would laugh at this new craze as it was her generation’s way of life. With all of our growing technology, food became “convenient”…packed, wrapped and good to go….when fast food was born, our lives drastically changed as did our tastebuds and health. It’s taken the alarming drastic toll on our health and waistlines for us to finally realize that maybe our convenient flash frozen, quickly fried and biggie sized lives have not been as amazing as we first thought.

Looking at an abandoned old farm house such as the one above does make me a bit wistful and nostalgic for a former time. The cities began calling and off everyone sadly went. But there is something to be said for this long ago far away slower way of life, as life use to be. My humble opinion is that we were a happier people. Family was important and close knit. We interacted with one another, we supported one another. Our parents were our parents and not our friends. If we got in trouble, we got in trouble. Life was seemingly more “real”……

Afternoons, after school, were spent out in the yard or on our bikes. Weekends were spent exploring the woods or the creek. We picked apples off the tree and ate them on the spot as the yellow jackets chased after us. Evenings were spent, after homework, chasing toads, fireflies, counting stars; listening to the crickets, the whippoorwills, telling secrets under the stars and moonlit nights.

There were chores, errands, cleaning..there were repercussions for not doing such. There were beans to snap, cakes to make, oil to change in the car and truck, cats and dogs to feed. We could go outside and we were safe. Mothers didn’t worry if we were gone with the neighboring kids all day long, returning when twilight was falling on the land and names were called out from backdoors, or whistles were blown or bells were rung to come running for supper.

Wistful, nostalgic and even a tad sad…..

I miss that life…I think most of us miss that life.