Bristol

I know that I am a little behind for a Thanksgiving post, but life is a tiring mess these days. My Thanksgiving post, or thankfulness post, starts with happiness. Happiness in life comes, to me, in the small things. The small things always add up and make great things.

So, fall is my favorite season. I love the brisk air. I love the colors. I love football season and as a kid I loved the beginning of the school year. My second favorite is winter. With it comes: snow, Christmas, hot chocolate, snowboarding and spinning broadies on the four-wheeler. In our little town though I would say we have five seasons. There is this weird little period of time between fall and winter that is kinda nasty-- for some reason I want to call it Bristol. Everything is just dead. The pretty leaves are all gone, but there is no snow yet. Everything is yellow. My friend describes it as “blonde grass”. Anyway, up until about three weeks ago I always agreed--Bristol here is UGLY. Well, the other day I was on a walk and I just happened to look down at this dried up flower. It was wilted and dead, but I was taken aback. I looked really close and the detail was beautiful. I broke it off and for some reason decided to carry it. I kept looking and I found more flowers and plants that were just as beautiful. By the time I got home I had a gorgeous Bristol bouquet. I came in and showed my family. My mom was the only one that showed any enthusiasm. She laughed, however, when I asked her if she thought it would be weird to use bouquets like this at my wedding. I just couldn’t get over it. Maybe Bristol is my new favorite season.

So what right? What does this have to do with being thankful? Well, I thought about this for a long time and this is what I came up with. Life right now is, like I said before, a tiring mess. I never know where I will be or what I am going to be doing in six months. A common phrase of mine now is “I can just sleep when I’m dead”. Life is uncertain. Things could change in a heartbeat and they probably will. Sometimes, it’s very difficult to find something beautiful, or something I can be thankful for, in my life. I’ve realized though, that I’m just paying too much attention to my two favorite seasons. I don’t allow myself to enjoy the time between fall and winter. I don’t try and see the beauty because I’ve always thought that it was ugly when really if I would have looked hard enough I would have realized that I was passing up my favorite season. This time in my life is crazy and uncertain, but it is unique and short. As soon as it is over I will want it back. So, here it goes. You can quote me on this. I am thankful to be a young, single, poor, uncertain adult.