While watching some leaves fall this morning, I thought that it seemed too soon for that to happen, but then each season does appear to show up faster than the one before it. Some kind of climate change would likely not be the cause. Instead, it is my perception of time as I get older. Checking a calendar, the first day of autumn is September 22^nd, more than a month away. Vegetation must not be following the calendar, though, as trees, bushes and other greenery gives the appearance of fall about a week away rather than four times that. My memory is that summer and good weather just arrived, with that arrival was a long list of things I’d planned to do. Virtually none of those were actually accomplished. Maybe all those things not done weren’t particularly important. If important, wouldn’t they have been given a higher priority? I did manage a few of my plans. Those must have had the highest priority. Perhaps next summer, I will have to think more about what is most important to do and focus on those things.

At the speed life moves past, the concept of a “bucket list” becomes easier to understand – though when I first heard the term less than six months ago, I had no idea what it meant. I see now that if one takes the very most important things to do or have in the future and put a finite number of those into a list, maybe it’s possible to get them accomplished instead of seeing seasons move past with their opportunities for living lost. Thinking ahead to autumn, and trying to formulate my “list,” I see that there will be some chances to take care of a few of those list items. But, whether they actually occur or not isn’t something I can know right now, I can only plan for them and then by the time winter arrives, I will have a better idea whether this “list” concept is a good one or not so good, based on what I can either cross off the list or what God teaches me that I didn’t really need to do at all.