Thinkin' About October

Thinkin’ About October

 

By John W. Vander Velden             

 

Been thinkin’ about October.  The autumn month wedged between September and November.  Seems to me that October is a month of change.  I guess the whole season of autumn is.  But to me October is a special month. 

Typically as a farmer, October is when harvest begins.  That was not the case for all those years I milked cows.  I always said harvest began around Memorial Day, with the first cutting of hay, and did not end until the last ear of corn had found its way to the bin.  Good years that would be before Thanksgiving.  Great years, and they did not happen often, by Halloween.

But things change, and October is about changes.  We notice the change in temperature.  Frosts come in October to remind us winter approaches.  On most years the leaves become glorious, the green of spring and summer replaced by golds and reds.  Usually those leaves abandon their posts flying on the breeze for brief moments to settle in our yards, in October.  We do not allow them to remain blanketing our grass.  Instead we rush about raking them to neat piles to be hauled…somewhere.

 

           It’s still football season for our area High Schools, and Marching bands yet take the field in Saturday competitions.  It can snow in October.  It usually does.  Another reminder that winter’s at the door.  But the white stuff doesn’t hang around for long.  But I can remember my son sloshing around the field, counting his steps and fingering brass valves in memorized order.  They say you’re not a fan of the Bands if you haven'’ been snowed on...and like it. 

 

It’s October and things be a changin’.  But in truth each day brings some sort of change, no matter what month it is.  Life is about changes, isn’t it?  How we handle the changes tells a great deal about us.  Surely there are those changes we anticipate…even enjoy.  And there are those changes that come sneaky to the unprepared and turn life of its axis a bit.  Sometimes more than a bit.  And so as I think of October, as I think about changes, I become reflective.  I take a bit of time to think of the changes I have seen.  I consider how those events have changed me.  I wonder what I would be like if…. Now that’s just counter productive.  Things happened and I changed… period.  Or have I…Hmmmmmm.  How would I know?  How can I be certain that I have grown because of the changing environment that surrounds?  Perhaps I have done no more than adapt to the ever changing world.  Is there a difference?  Perhaps…perhaps not. 

But even if I have only adapted to the changes of MY world…I am different because of those adaptations.  So I HAVE changed.  Hopefully for the better.  So I’m thinkin’ about October and about changes.  About the changes I have seen and endured, and the changes, expected and unexpected, I will face in the days ahead…

 

(501 Words)  9-26-2017