Today, I no longer see snow resting on top of colorful tree branches. After the snow, a biting wind snatched many of the remaining leaves from their wooden perches, sending them to the ground in dancing cascades. Movement into winter is nearing completion. Last week, I hiked in sunshine and in snow. Today, as I sit in my art studio, the day is grey and cold.

Change always seems sudden, even though signs may be apparent well in advance. This is true not only of seasons but of life in general. As a young woman, life felt spacious, almost eternal. Now, as I near seventy, life has limits. I am aware that my personal story will eventually end, and it will be up to others to carry the journey forward. Still, I am not disheartened or fearful. Instead, I am grateful. Not everyone is blessed to live into their senior years.

Life is different from what I had imagined. I looked forward to retirement for years before my exit from the workforce. Retirement meant freedom, a time to reignite passions that I didn’t have time for earlier in life. In reality, retirement is an exchange, a movement into a different kind of life. I am free from the demands of a job and the raising of children. Yet, I am still just as busy. I could choose to be sedentary. Sit on the couch and binge-watch television with a bag of chips at my side. But would I then waste a significant part of this one precious life? Instead, I choose to paint, to sing, to write, to take pictures, to love, and to engage in all that life has to offer these old bones.

This much has remained the same. I still see life passing by way too quickly. As in my youth, it is easy to miss life’s moments while I am occupied with the business of living life. It is possible to be so busy living that one forgets to live.

I will be taking a break next week to enjoy the holiday time with family and friends. I plan to capture a few precious moments in my heart and in my mind. Such may live again in a future painting, but the experience is what is truly important—making memories.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving. Hug someone. Tell them you love them. Think of this day as once in a lifetime, because no matter how many Thanksgivings you have lived or will live, it is.