In-between

I snapped this photo of one of our crepe myrtle trees on Friday evening.  Notice anything unusual about it?  It is still blooming-- producing its gorgeous and delicate pink blossoms-- yet its leaves have begun to turn.  I think it is suspended between summer and autumn. 

That's how I feel, too, in these beginning days of September.  

The mornings are a crisp 55 degrees, but the afternoons rise into the 80s. 

The kids slather on sunscreen to swim in the pool, but the NFL season began last week. 

I'm craving soup and fresh bread, yet the oven still overheats the house in the afternoon. 

Jeans, swimsuits, tank tops, and sweat jackets  all show up in my laundry piles. 

Oatmeal and popsicles pass our lips in the same day. 

We've completed five weeks of school, but we're preparing for our family's "summer" vacation. 

It's beautiful, though, just like that confused tree.  It's the beauty of living life-- experiencing the changing of seasons, tasting bits of what is almost gone while welcoming what it coming soon.  It's the beauty of the in-between.