5 Ways to Get Excited About Fall

Published in The Packet

Like Anne of Green Gables, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” This month is flying by in a blur of gorgeous foliage, costume making, and chilly back yard romps with the dog.

If you don’t find yourself gushing about the arrival of fall, here are five effortless ways to crush your ambivalence.

Bake pumpkin muffins. I promised these suggestions would be effortless, so if you don’t have at your disposal a great-great grandmother’s treasured recipe with fifteen ingredients in it, feel free to use my two-ingredient recipe. Mix a yellow cake mix with a can of pure pumpkin, plop it in a muffin tin, and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. If you’re feeling really fancy, add some chocolate chips. One bite of this moist, delicious, treat will have you reveling in pumpkin season.

If you don’t have half an hour to spend baking, spend a few seconds to light a pumpkin scented candle. The dim, romantic flickering of a flame and the smell of pumpkin pie provides a quick treat to the senses. The smell will remind you of scrumptious baked goods and Thanksgiving feasting. It might also stir up your libido. A few years ago The Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago discovered that the scent of pumpkin pie increases sexual desire in women and penile blood flow in men. Who knew fall was such a sexy season?

Take a walk with your camera. The crisp air will awaken your senses. Plus, there is something about looking at the world through a lens that encourages you to slow down and notice the minute details of fall that we ordinarily drive past without a second thought.  Delicate acorns, the veins within the showy leaves, early morning frost on dead tree branches, are visual poetry for you to discover.

It is hard to not associate the arrival of fall with returning to school. This fall, awaken the old school-age rhythms within you and go learn something new. Try attending a martial arts class, make something crafty, or pick up a musical instrument. With kids in school, many parents have more time in their schedules to check out classes for themselves that conveniently start new fall schedules.

My favorite thing to do in October is to enjoy a good mystery. Read a gothic thriller, have a Harry Potter movie marathon, or watch BBC’s Sherlock on Netflix. It doesn’t matter how you experience the mystery or who you experience it with, so long as you enjoy your mystery curled up under a blanket, preferably with a bowl of popcorn and a cup of hot chocolate.

Happy fall friends!