By Doug Creamer
Fall 2025
I love watching the trees turn beautiful fall colors. I have stopped on more than one occasion to take pictures of trees in their glory. Their beauty fades when they fall and need to be raked up. However, there are some great videos online of dogs running and jumping into piles of leaves. They will bring a smile to your face.
I also appreciate the cooler fall weather. I am always glad to see the oppressive heat of summer lose its grip as the crisp air of fall takes over. I enjoy each season, but I like the spring and fall the best. The fall temperatures have been very kind to us this year.
I have enjoyed a few garden treats this week. I have one tomato vine that is still producing tomatoes for me. I ate a juicy, fresh tomato sandwich the other night. This was probably the worst year for tomatoes for me. If it hadn’t been for some friends and local farmer I wouldn’t have enjoyed many tomatoes. This vine has been generous. I have also enjoyed some fall lettuce that I planted. The other day I walked through the yard and found a few raspberries. They tasted great on my cereal. I wonder what will become of a potato plant I discovered had seeded itself in the garden.
I did my least favorite fall task last weekend. I brought my tropical plants in for the winter. The plants go in the garage but the problem is the garage needed to be cleaned out in preparation for the plants to come in. Things need to be put away to make room for the plants. Carrying all the plants into the garage is getting harder as the plants are getting bigger and bigger each year.
There is still so much to do outside. I need to clean up the back porch and weed the plants that do not come into the garage. Those plants will need to move close to the house for the winter. I need to trim a few trees so they will be ready for next spring. I also need to put away the hoses. I would like to put some mulch down and clean out the gutters once the trees finish dropping their leaves.
The thing that is causing my mind to spin is that in a few weeks I will be busy outside putting up the Christmas decorations. If you go to any retail store you might think it is too late to start doing that because for them, Christmas has already arrived. I walked through Lowes the weekend before Halloween and they had put all the Halloween decorations away and Christmas was out in full force. A friend of mine is a professional Santa Claus in High Point and I imagine his schedule is already getting booked. He is a great Santa who always points to Jesus as being the real reason for Christmas.
I know that Christmas is just around the corner and it will get here faster than I can imagine, but I want to caution us not to skip right over Thanksgiving. Fall is a great time to reflect on being thankful. We have enjoyed another gardening season and hopefully had some successes. We have enjoyed another summer season that hopefully included some travel to our favorite places. We are enjoying the beauty of the changing season and the nice reprieve from summer’s heat before the cold of winter sets in.
There is so much to be thankful for that we should not reserve it for one day. We are blessed to have family and friends in our lives who care about us and are there for us as we go through the ups and downs of life. We have roofs over our heads and food on our tables, something that is missing for many living in war torn nations or those who have endured Hurricane Melissa.
It is easy to allow the rush towards Christmas to push you right past Thanksgiving and being thankful, but I want to encourage you to purposefully take some time over the next couple of weeks to focus on being thankful. In your prayers, purposefully thank God for your many blessings. In your interactions with co-workers and family, express thanks to them for their help and support. In the weeks to come, express an attitude of gratitude. Learn to express your thanks every day, not just on one day of the year. Having a heart filled with thanks will change the way you see the world and the way the world sees you.
Contact Doug Creamer at PO Box 777, Faith, NC 28041or doug@dougcreamer.com
