Fall Always Makes Me Want a Little More From Life

There’s something about the first cool mornings of fall that makes me look at my home, my routines and the life I’m building and wonder what could be next.

There’s a certain kind of morning I wait for every year.

It doesn’t have to be cold. Where I live, that would be asking a lot from September. The afternoon might still climb into the 80s or even 90s.

I just need the morning to dip below 70.

That’s enough.

I’ll wake up before the sun is completely up, open the windows around the house and let that first cool air come through. And almost immediately, something in me changes.

It feels like fall is finally coming.

We’ll probably have a false fall somewhere along the way. We always do. A few beautiful mornings will convince us summer is over, only for the heat to come roaring back for another week.

But I don’t really care.

Once I’ve felt that first cool morning, I’m ready.

Fall Makes Me Want More

I love summer. I love the pool and the long days and everything that comes with them.

But fall does something different to me.

It makes me dream.

Not necessarily about one particular thing. About everything.

I start thinking about places I want to travel. Things I want to change around my house. Projects I could finally finish. People I want sitting around my table. Businesses I could grow. New things I could try.

I start wondering what life could look like if I took a chance on something.

Even starting Two Ten South feels connected to that.

There’s something about the freshness of a new season that makes me want to create something, finish something or make something better.

Fall doesn’t make me want an entirely different life.

It makes me want to do a little more with the one I already have.

I Start Looking at Home Differently

Suddenly, I notice all the things I’ve been walking past.

The baseboards I still need to finish.

The extra flooring sitting in the guest bedroom because there are a few final pieces that need to go down.

The walls that still need the right artwork before a room feels finished.

Outside, I start thinking about pulling weeds, filling in the grass and figuring out what I could plant for fall.

I want the firewood restocked before the first night we decide to light the fire pit. And then enough ready for the fireplace when winter eventually follows.

Eventually, I’ll pull the fall box out of the garage. The pumpkin mugs will come out. And suddenly making chili or a pot of soup sounds like exactly how I want to spend an afternoon in the kitchen.

None of these things are particularly life-changing on their own.

But together, they feel like preparation for the season I want to have.

Not because I need everything to be perfect. I think I just want home to feel ready for whatever this season might bring.

Maybe I’m Making Room

I’ve realized I don’t want to spend every fall weekend looking at a list of unfinished things hanging over my head.

I want some of those weekends back.

For Saturday morning yard sales.

For walks with friends.

For sitting on the back porch when the weather finally cooperates.

For wandering around the backyard with my coffee in the morning, checking on things that probably haven’t changed since yesterday.

And for doing absolutely nothing when that’s what I need.

Maybe that’s part of why fall makes me want to finish things.

I’m not trying to create a perfect house.

I’m trying to make room to enjoy it.

I Want People Here, Too

Every year, I picture myself entertaining more than I actually do.

I imagine the table decorated for a fall dinner. Friends coming over for a Dancing With the Stars night. A pumpkin-themed evening just because it sounds fun. Maybe finally hosting Friendsgiving and setting a table I’ve thought about for weeks.

I want those nights.

But sometimes wanting to host and feeling completely confident enough to actually invite everyone over are two different things.

I can convince myself the house needs to be more finished first. That I need the right artwork on the walls. That one more project needs to be crossed off the list.

But the house probably won’t ever be completely finished.

There will always be another project.

Another wall that needs something.

Another thing I’d change if I had the time.

And maybe the people I want sitting around my table don’t need any of that finished anyway.

Maybe part of enjoying the home I’m creating is letting people into it before it’s done.

Fall Lets Me Do Both

This is probably what I love most about the season.

Fall somehow makes me want to do more and slow down at exactly the same time.

The cooler air makes me want to move my body. Clean the house. Finish a project. Grow something. Start something.

I want to go for walks with friends, wander through yard sales on Saturday mornings and spend more time outside. I want to work on the backyard, plant something new and come inside feeling like I actually accomplished something.

But then the earlier sunset tells me it’s perfectly acceptable to stay inside all day.

To make soup.

To turn on the lamps.

To curl up somewhere comfortable and not feel like I should be somewhere else.

There’s ambition in fall for me.

But there’s also relief.

It makes me excited to do more with my life without making me feel guilty for sometimes doing less.

And maybe that’s why I feel so much like myself during this season.

What I Hope Is Different by Winter

By the time fall gives way to winter, I hope a few things around the house are finally finished.

But more than that, I hope there are memories here that weren’t here before.

I hope I’ve invited people over more than once.

I hope there was a night when we opened another bottle of wine because nobody was ready to leave.

I hope I decorated a table just because I wanted to.

I hope there were cool mornings with every window open, afternoons spent outside and weekends that felt like mine instead of a list of things I needed to accomplish.

And I hope when winter arrives, I’m still looking forward.

That’s something I don’t always find easy.

Sometimes I need a little help believing that what’s ahead could be really good.

Fall seems to give me that.

It makes me look around at my home, my work, the people I love and the life I’m building and think:

What if there’s still so much good ahead?

Maybe that’s why I’ll always love this season.

It doesn’t just make me ready for cooler weather.

It makes me excited about what’s next.