Growing up, my sisters and I were always singing songs about something. One of our favorites was what we called, “The Johnny Appleseed Song”, and part of it went like this:

                     Oh, the Lord is good to me
                       And so I thank the Lord,
                       For giving me, the things I need:
                       The sun and rain and the apple seed,
                       The Lord is good to me.

But, back to that song we used to sing. I’m filled with nostalgia as I reflect on giving thanks for such things as “the sun and rain and the apple seed.” Look around you and gaze at what this month has blessed us with: the brilliance of autumn leaves in an array of colors we can hardly begin to appreciate, the sound of biting into a perfectly ripe, crisp apple, seeing fields of oddly shaped orange pumpkins just waiting for our imaginative carvings, admiring lovely golden-rods shimmering in the afternoon sun,  laughing at decorative scarecrows blinking at us with crooked smiles and floppy hats, pausing for just a moment in the coolness of a foggy, quiet morning.  To enjoy any of these gifts of nature costs no  more than your time. Slowing down from the hectic pace of our lives long enough to look – really look – and see the beauty of what autumn brings is well worth it. Take a moonlight walk, go sit out on that lawn chair, hold hands with your child and collect some colorful fall leaves. Time won’t stand still.

If I close my eyes I can still see my grandmother, standing beside her artwork the evening she entered several of her oil paintings in a gallery show. I was only in first or second grade, but I’ll never forget the look of pride on her face. This was over 60 years ago; she was the only woman showing work.  She took my hand, walked me around the gallery, and told me how good the Lord was and that I could find beauty everywhere I looked.  But it was her painting, her golden-rod, that was my favorite. It now hangs prominently in our home and is a reminder to find beauty in the simple things that may be so easily overlooked.

“Golden-rod” oil painting by my grandmother, Maude Rhodes ByrneThe golden-rod is yellow;

The corn is turning brown;
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down.
By all these lovely tokens
September (and October) days are here,
With summer’s best of weather,
And autumn’s best of cheer.

Helen Hunt Jackson

Our book reviews are of such a delightful variety of fall topics!  What could be better than delicious apples and colorful leaves and fascinating scarecrows?