Somebody put a pumpkin on their porch in my neighborhood this week.
It is 94 degrees.
But here we go. School started, the college kids got dropped off, and a store somewhere was already playing Christmas music as a warm-up. We went from beach towels to fall candles in about nine days, which is the only autumn any of us are getting down here. I lit one anyway. Sat in shorts with the AC running and smelled a pumpkin. It's called commitment.
Here's the thing I keep telling people this time of year.
Good change is still change.
Your body does not file it somewhere separate just because the thing that changed was happy. A kid you're proud of moving into a dorm still registers as a change. A new schedule you wanted still registers as a change. So, if you're more tired than the calendar seems to justify, or you keep opening the fridge with no plan and closing it again, nothing is wrong with you. You're just carrying more than you're getting credit for.
My contribution to the season has been buying a planner. A beautiful one. Cream cover, gold lettering. I've used it twice. Once to write the date and once to write "get organized," which I feel is very on brand.
I also bought a mum for the porch. We both know how this ends.
Football is the part I'm not conflicted about. Saturdays have a shape again. Game on, something in the crockpot even though it is far too hot for a crockpot, and a reason to yell at a television in my own home.
I should mention that I'm a Seminole and I raised two Gators. I don't know where I went wrong. We've agreed to love each other anyway, mostly, and I've learned that the fastest way to get a phone call from my kids is for Florida State to lose. They're very thoughtful that way.
There's a line I come back to; each day already has enough in it. Not October, November, and December stacked up in front of you like laundry you have not started. Just today. If you believe as I do, that reads less like a rule and more like permission to set some of it down.
I have not set much down yet. I'm working on it.
So, tell me. What's one thing going well right now? Small counts. "My kid texted me first" counts. Your team counts, even if it's the wrong one.