Looking To Turn Over A New Leaf

There is something about Fall in the North East that you just can't help but love. The leaves are all around me and it's beautiful! The air is crisp, the sun is warm, the scenery is vivid and alive with color. I feel like being a kid again! It takes me back to a time when I would rake the leaves into a pile and jump off a tree swing into them. If that tree swing was still around, that is where you would find me right now. However, now I have to settle for picking up acorns and trying to peal the "hat" off, then seeing how far and accurate I can throw them. Childish? Maybe, but then it's good to be young at heart and have some fun. The best part of Fall weather is that you are no longer roasting in the heat and humidity, nor are you shivering in the snow. Fall lands nicely in between and takes the best of both seasons. I was born in late October, so the Fall season I may be a little partial to this time of year.

As a kid my Mom use to make the family go on "leaf trips". Wow, did I hate that! There is something about being crammed in the back of a car with 2 sisters on either side of you, one bossing you around to stay on your side and the other taking up my side, that I just did not enjoy. Go figure. I did understand my Mom's theory in thinking this is great little family time road trip. All she wanted was for us to share in and enjoy the beauty of nature together. Although fortunately for her, she didn't have the same displeasure I had riding in the backseat with those two...with me getting stuck in the middle on "the hump". My one sister pretty much complained non-stop no matter what and the other one, we had to pull over so she could pee every 5 minutes. Looking back I don't know how I kept my sanity, but somehow I did. I do see now why my Dad would lose his patience. I guess when you are young, you tolerate more and the older you are, the easier you are "set off".

As the years go by and the older you get, the more you cherish those memories. Even though back then I hated the trip, if I could turn back time and do it again, I would in a heartbeat. Things seemed easy back then - happy. Now being the youngest of three, we are all grown. We all have moved out and have our own separate lives, which seem to be getting more distant and separate as the seasons go by. My one sister is married and raising a little one. My other sister has moved across the country to CA to look for Mr. Right and begin a family of her own. Me? I'm back in the same city I grew up in and growing anxious for my life to turn over a new leaf. I've got the career nailed down and doing just fine there. I got the cars and the house, but material possesions don't mean much if you don't have someone to share them with. I know that sounds a little cheessy and cliché, but it's true. That is what I need now, someone to share my life with. I want to have someone who will take leaf trips with me while the kiddies argue in the back. Sounds silly I know, but I would find peace in that.

It's not like I don't have friends and don't go out on dates. I do, just that I'm starting to get back into the mindset I was in a few years ago when I had a girlfriend. You stop looking for "Miss Right Now" and start looking for "Mrs. Right". Sometime it's just a matter of turning the Miss Right Now into Mrs. Right. Don't get me wrong, there's no rush. I'm still young and I have time - no biological clock ticking here. I'm not commitment-phobic like alot of guys are, but at the same time I don't push and pressure for any relationship to get serious. The way I see it, take it as it comes. Let Mother Nature take her course naturally just as she does with the seasons. Things will flow and fall into place if it was meant to be. If any relationship turns into something more, then great and if it doesn't, that's fine too. Good or bad, that's always been my moto.

Sometimes I think it's more important to just focus on enjoying ourselves and having fun in life. With all the uglyness that people harp about on a daily basis, I think they should try to remember that life is too short not to laugh and appreciate the good things that do exist - like the simply beauty of the Fall leaves. Life is sort of like my Mom's Fall leaf trip. You might not always want to take the journey and sometimes the ride along the way is bumpy, but among the roughness there can be beautiful things. The only key to seeing them is that you have to agree to take that ride. The leaves are changing all around me and I think that's a sign I make some changes as well. Now whether that be in love, career or living location - I'm not sure. I guess time will tell, but for now as I look out my window watching each leaf drop, I'm going to go out and turn some new leaves over myself.