A Little House, a Big Welcome

My little birdhouse is dressed for fall, surrounded by orange leaves. And inside my own house, October means birthdays, pumpkin pies, persimmon bread, and people I love coming through the door. This is our gathering month. I look forward to it all year.

Look at that little birdhouse tucked beneath the orange leaves. Doesn’t it look ready to welcome someone home? That’s how I feel this week. October is here, my birthday has just passed, and our family gathering is underway. Friends and family are coming from near and far, and the house is filling with familiar voices. We’ve gathered like this most Octobers since my brother began coming back from Bali each year. Seeing those fall colors feels like the beginning of something I already know I’m going to love.

October has arrived, and oh boy, am I glad to see it.

This is the month of pumpkin pies and persimmon bread, birthdays and gatherings, friends and family coming through the door. It’s the month when I start anticipating familiar faces and all the conversations we’ll have once everyone gets here.

And the smells. Those may be what I love most. The baking, the outdoors, the familiar scents that make fall feel like fall.

We’ve gathered at our house most Octobers since my brother began coming back from Bali each year. Over time, October became our homecoming month. Now its arrival brings the happy knowledge that people I love will soon be here.

A Little House, a Big Welcome

Outside, a little wooden birdhouse hangs beneath a branch of orange leaves.

I love that photograph. The mossy tree, the fall colors, the small doorway. It looks like a little home waiting for its next visitor.

This week, I recognize the feeling.

My birthday has just passed, the gathering is underway, and our house is filling with familiar voices. People are catching up and settling in. The plans we’ve talked about are becoming actual people standing in front of us.

There is something wonderful about that transition. For weeks, someone is coming. Then suddenly, here they are.

I look at the birdhouse and think about welcome. How much happiness can live in the simple act of opening a door and saying, “Come on in.”

The Guests Outside My Window

While our guests gather inside, another group has assembled outside my bedroom window.

I have two birdbaths there. One holds water. The other holds seed, and it has provided years of entertainment.

On one particular visit, two jays, an acorn woodpecker, and a gentleman in his gray suit gathered around it together. My little United Nations of birds.

Each visitor has a personality. Some are cautious. Others arrive with great confidence. Watching them negotiate a place at the feeder can be quite a show.

I don’t have to go anywhere for this entertainment. I just have to look out the window.

This week, their gathering makes me smile for another reason. We have our own assortment of personalities arriving, each bringing stories, habits, laughter, and a different way of seeing the world.

I’m grateful for the company on both sides of the glass.

The Chair That Holds Our History

Inside the house is a little rocking chair that has welcomed generations of our family.

My great-grandmother Mimi rocked me in it when I was a brand-new baby. My grandma Ellen, my mama Wilma, and my grandmother Frances held me there, too.

Later, I sat in that same chair with my own daughter in my arms. Then with my granddaughter.

I think about those women when I look at it. The strength, courage, creativity, and fun they brought to our family. The things they taught us through the way they lived.

Two little stuffies sit on the chair now. The yellow one was crocheted for me by my grandmother Frances when I was a baby. I have kept it my whole life. The white dog, Boomer, belonged to my daughter when she was tiny.

They look quite comfortable together.

The chair and its little companions are part of the home everyone is returning to. Familiar things, carrying stories that reach far beyond this October.

Another October Together

Where is the gratitude here?

In the people who make the journey. In having a place to welcome them. In the birds that keep me entertained and the fall colors that make me stop for a picture.

And in the love that has traveled through our family, from the women who held me to the children I held in turn.

This week, I get to enjoy the gathering. To look around, listen to the familiar voices, and appreciate that we are here together again.

Come Walk with Me. There’s a little October welcome waiting here.

Find the Good and Say it Out Loud.