Wellbeing Wednesday: The smell of sun-warmed leaves in the fall

As I walked through my friend's glorious flower garden this past weekend, the mid-September sun was in its fully glory, warming the earth and my bare arms. I heard the crickets chirping and saw the last hummingbirds darting from flower to flower, efficiently packing up nutrients for their long upcoming flight. My friend's perennials remind me of the final five minutes of our local firework display in July - they are giving it everything they've got and then doubling it. Startlingly beautiful.

I could have conveniently forgotten that the seasons are about to change, except that the soft valley breeze brought a memory to my nose - the smell of sun-warmed leaves.

The fragrance of fall leaves summons the memory of hiking as a child in the Minnesota hills with my mother, when the sumac was bright red. That is a good memory.

It also reminds me of jumping off of a picnic table into a huge pile of dusty, warm leaves that my sisters and I had raked together. That memory makes me smile!

The fragrance of fall leaves reminds me that these weeks are short-lived and that time is fleeting.

Nature nurtures by providing memory-fragrances and this one comes only time a year - right now.

Today, I will take the time to notice and appreciate the fragrances that nature provides in this beautiful season of change.