Feels like Fall.

I stepped outside to take the garbage out at 6am a couple weeks ago.

The darkness of night had just departed and the brightness of day was being ushered in.

I stood on our back steps for a moment, suddenly struck by the familiarness of home. Our old home. In the States.

I looked around. But I was still here, far away, in our new home. A smile broke out across my face.

For the first time since I moved here five months ago...it felt like Fall. It even smelled like it. It smelled like a season I recognized. The air was crisp. The temperature hovering in the 60's. You could smell the dew. My skin prickled from the colder air stirred up by a breeze.

It sent my spirit light.

They told me the cold season would come. And it did.

A cold season that gets into the 90's during the day.

What a funny place this is.

I love it very much.

I'm particularly enjoying the weather right now. I wore jeans and a layered long sleeve shirt tonight. When night starts to fall the temperature drops to the high 50's, which is chilly anywhere. But feels especially chilly here when you've been sweatin' in the 90's all day. Burkinabé's all wear thick jackets, with scarves, hats, and gloves. They are seriously cold.

I welcome the cooler air.

It feels like Fall to me.

The beginning of Fall when the leaves start to turn. The leaves have even been falling off our trees here.

Again, what a funny place this is.

This morning I sneaked outside early and sat on the patio in a patch of sunlight with my book. I cozied up in my chair and basked in the small patch of sunlight. I delighted in the chill of the morning. I watched the birds and listened to the lizards rustle around. I thanked Jesus again and again and again. For everything and nothing in particular. Just a soul deep thanks that I can never say enough. A thousand thank you's will always be too few. But I say it still.

I have learned and am still painfully learning to be thankful for the smallest of things.

Today I was thankful for the chilly morning air. I sat outside and let it wash over me. I am soaking it in. Every goose bump. Every smell of what seems like Fall. Fall mixed with dirt and garbage and sewage. But that familiar smell is still there. We spent a lot of time outside today. When sitting in the sun got too hot and sweaty, I would move to the shade and welcome it's cool relief. The patio steps in full light would be hot to touch, but the shady ground under our mango trees was damp and cool.

The contradictions made me smile.

I'm taking it all in. Because I know that soon it will be gone. Just as the rain washed itself away, soon the heat will stifle all that is cool and it will be suffocatingly hot.

They said the rains would stop and they did. They said the cold season would come and it did. Soon the Harmattan will blow in and then the unbearable heat will follow.

So I am soaking up every cool morning and night I can. Because I don't want to miss it. Because one day it will be gone...and I want to have lived and loved this season to it's fullest.