While Fall sounds like a masculine season, bringing to mind images of barren trees against a stark gray sky, Autumn conjures up a more feminine scene, where patterned leaves drift quietly down to cover the ground in a blanket of soft colors.  However you choose to envision this next month, pause briefly now and again to listen to the rustle of nature.  The lazy days of summer are long gone, and this is a time of action.  The little critters are busy readying themselves for what they instinctively know is to come, and yet humans are so inclined as to ignore it all and just go about our days as though this doesn't really affect us.  When in reality, we are affected by the changes in nature at a much greater level than we take the time to honor.  Yes, seasons change, and as they do, we should also be reminded of the changes that occur in our own lives.  This season known as Fall where the weather begins to get colder should prompt us to prepare for the harsher times we know are coming.  Wouldn't it be great if we could also sense when a storm was brewing in our personal lives & just like we chop wood to fuel the fire that keeps us warm in the winter months, we could also prepare for the harsh times in our lives that also require warmth & extra attention?  So, why not take some time this next month to honor Mother Nature, and honor yourself? Before the holidays kick in, before company comes, and we start to plan menus & cook & clean & shop, readying ourselves for Thanksgiving feasts & Christmas parties, why not just give it a couple of weeks?  Take some long walks in the crunchy leaves before they're all raked up, and notice the way they smell as you delightfully crush them under your shoes!  Stoop to gather some naked sticks from the ground and admire the artistic lines of the barren branches over head.  Sit quietly and watch the busy chipmunks rushing about doing all of their last minute gathering before the feast of the fall harvest has been blanketed with snow.  When you do return indoors, look around at how the lighting has changed now that the bright summer sun is no longer gleaming through the windows.  Bring in good lighting to read by & change old, burned-out bulbs.  Place your artistic sticks in a vase in front of a window to help transition your living space with nature.  Often, we spend too much time & money filling our domiciles with bric-a-brac from the corner drug-store that carries the usual holiday schtick, when what we are really craving is a unity with nature.  Although we have such a wonderfully controlled indoor environment that we really don't vary our schedules much according to the seasons,  instinctively we really want to, which is what leads to the desire to decorate our spaces with "autumn accents" and  "faux fall findings" of the trendiest type.  Perhaps just a nice walk, followed by a cup of tea and a good book read under some good lighting by the window where the artistic autumn sticks stare down at us, we can finally feel like we are a part of the earth once again.  It is still November, and so there is time for holiday hub-bub later.  Just sit awhile for now, by the gray November sky, and watch the changes go drifting by like a leaf on the wind...and get to Know-Vember.