Here We Go... #Fall

After finishing up some planting and handling the business of the week (OMG you are going to LOVE the videos we are working on), I drove off to attend a friend's wedding.  Russell, Joey and I wrote the song (not released yet) that would be played for their first dance and I had the final mix in hand.

Since I was there a day early, I volunteered to help set things up the day before the reception.

WHAT AN ABSOLUTELY AMAZING AND WONDERFUL TIME!

The room started off as a perfectly blank slate in the town's fire hall, but slowly and steadily it began to fill.  The transformation was fascinating.

First, boxes and bins were carried in from cars and trucks.  The empty kitchen was soon brimming with dishes, candy, flowers, ribbons, tablecloths, candles, bottles of water and cans of pop (that's "soda" for all you other people - lol).  Decorations, champagne glasses and everything you could think of all started to spill out into the hall where tables were being unfolded, carried and arranged to fill the space to capacity in neat orderly rows.

The decor followed a Fall theme and after the cream colored tablecloths were laid, and the head table's gold leaf patterned overlays were lovingly placed, after skirts hugged the gift, coffee, cake and head tables, some hundred plus chairs were carefully counted and put into place.  Then the flowers, vases, dishes, and candy migrated from boxes and bags in the kitchen to become the pretty and warm-colored center pieces and table settings.

A handful of the most lovely people worked like elves in Santa's workshop as candles came out of boxes and were placed at each seat as a "thank you" gift to each guest.  Hundreds of cloth leaves came out of plastic bags and the team began to line the walls with them.  Decorative bales of hay were placed at the entrance and lovingly arranged with fall colored flowers.  Floral arrangements, baskets of candy, plates of cookies, and a beautiful satin card box filled the entrance table, and hanging fall decoratives draped from the doorway.  There were wreaths and rows of lighted leaves and fall colors everywhere.  It was a totally different-looking room.  

Then the DJ arrived and unloaded his corner-full of speakers, stands and CDs.  As he tested equipment, music filled the air and we all danced as we taped extension cords to the floor and more leaves to the walls.  You could really get a sense of how the room would feel when family and friends would arrive the next day and fill it even more with laughter and love.

Amazing.  Simply amazing.

with DJ Bear - the first person to play "Our Song of Love"

The ceremony was so heart-warming!  The bride was beautiful.  The groom was handsome and just the right amount of nervous.  The music was gorgeous and the bride's two college-aged children were the best man and maid of honor.  Two sets of young twins served as flower girls and ring bearers.  "Ave Maria" (sung by the bride's daughter) sounded as if it were sung by an Angel.  We all smiled and remembered how perfectly wonderful it is to be in love as we looked on and witnessed the two becoming one in love and family.  They lit their unity candle, were proclaimed husband and wife and kissed.  We clapped, took pictures and wiped away tears of joy.  I smile and warm up just thinking about it.

We all journeyed back to the hall where music, voices and the aroma of coffee were softly beginning to fill the room.  That morning, even more leaves had been placed on the walls, and balloons and additional flowers had arrived.  The kitchen had been bustling with people preparing vegetables and dinner rolls and the smell of delicious chicken had wafted in from the grills outside.  Magic was beginning to flow through the air.  As I looked around the room admiring the warmth of what had been just a blank canvas only the day before, my eyes fell on a cloth leaf and I thought of Fall - and falling in love.  How perfect.

I had been thinking about change and Fall all week.  You can't help but notice the change in the weather and the colors this time of year (especially when you're out raking leaves and trying to hurry up and plant things before the frost comes) - and what about "falling" in love?  Do we really "fall" or do we choose?  What if it's both?  What if the Truth is that we CHOOSE to fall?  What if an idea is born, then we choose to trust and believe in it, and allow ourselves to fall right into it?

I like that thought - and isn't that what we do all the time?  Don't we get an idea, then plant it?  Don't we have to nurture it, water it and trust it to grow?  Isn't it beautiful when two people believe in each other and blossom together?

Fall.  This is the time of year when we're reminded that things are changing and growing all around us all of the time.  We must change too.  Why not fall?  Why not choose an idea then trust it and fall all the way in?  Isn't that how we create our destiny anyway?  

A friend reminded me today, that we create our future whether we are consciously aware of it or not.  So why not fall on purpose and renew ourselves - just like the trees and flowers and everything in nature this time of year?  Isn't that how we carve out our hopes and our dreams and make ourselves and our lives better?  Won't this lovely new family be better and happier and stronger for doing it?  Didn't they inspire us all with their commitment to and belief in each other and by "falling" in love?

Eventually all the the toasts were made, the cake was cut, the dances were danced, and joy was had by all.  Guests began to filter out, and plates were cleared, food and flowers were carried out and tables and chairs were packed away.  Decorations were taken down and the floors were swept and mopped.  Cartons and boxes were loaded in cars and delivered back to houses.  The room became a blank slate again.

It may have looked the same, but it wasn't.  Love had been there - and it had made an imprint.  A new family was born.  Everyone who was there and inspired and joyous will now go out into the world and remember it - and be better for having experienced it.  Pictures will be shared and stories will be told about it for years to come.  Nothing ever stays the same.  Everything good gets better.

God Bless the newlyweds and their family.  God Bless everyone there - and all of us in this Earth family.  

As we all travel into the Fall season, let's try to make the changes good ones.  Let's choose to trust in the good ideas and feelings worthy of our belief in them.  Let's trust and then fall.

Here's to Fall... Here's to falling...

Namaste!

T