I think one of the main reasons I love fall so much is that so many of my favorite memories are tied to Autumn. I can get a whiff of an Autumnal scent in the air, and suddenly I’m 10 years old again.

This kind of weather makes me wish I could still go over to my grandmother’s house for dinner. I can smell those freshly baked rolls even now. Sometimes, I’d give just about anything to be a fly on the wall in 1982 to see my grandparents and my uncles and my cousin again.

I also have flashbacks to me wearing those plastic Halloween masks walking up and down Fox Meadows Road trick or treating for candy and the inevitable toothbrush from the one neighbor who was a dentist. Also, there was the time our next-door neighbor took us to a kind of Halloween Haunted House event at a church (the details are a bit fuzzy 40 years later).

I can also picture going to Gatlinburg back in the day before it became so touristy and commercialized. Riding in those station wagons, I probably asked “Are we there yet?” 3,998 times in the time it took to drive from Memphis to East Tennessee.

I figure Fall is a kind of slowing down of nature before the Sabbath of winter and the renewal of Spring. I could live in a world where we went perpetually from September to December back to September. I think October may be my favorite color.

Even though I can’t really go back, Fall reminds me that I’m blessed to have memories to cherish and people to miss. I had a great childhood and was loved a lot by a lot of people. My faith is a testimony to many generations of family members who prayed for me and showed me what loving Jesus looks like.

I also think Fall may be my very favorite scent.