Even if something is left undone, everyone must take time to sit still and watch the leaves turn." -Elizabeth Lawrence, American writer

By Sally Treadwell

Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers used to spend early fall canning vegetables and putting up preserves—damson, rhubarb, fig, peach—to replenish pantries before the coming of the long winter. Not many of us get into that particular annual ritual anymore, but in an increasingly stressful world we need to spend a little time on replenishing ourselves and our families.

So this month we have some ideas on how to bring your family closer together and teach your kids—and yourself—how to weather the storms and stresses of life. If you’re not convinced that you should take the time, you should know that even babies in the womb become agitated when their mothers are stressed. Think of replenishment as a gift for your family.

Celebrate the Harvest
Autumn has long been synonymous with the harvest—the Anglo-Saxon word for autumn was hærfest, which eventually translated into harvest. European churches adopted the traditional celebration of the harvest in September as a wonderful time to give thanks and fill churches with a bounty of flowers, fruit and vegetables that would later be given to the poor.

Your take on this? Go to one of the small organic farmers’ markets that are cropping up (sorry) all over town. Wallow in spectacular blue and purple potatoes with centers that look almost tie-dyed. Find dark green Russian kale that is divine chopped and baked with onions, garlic, a splash of olive oil and some Parmesan cheese. For a fast version of putting up preserves, buy bags of basil and have your kids help you wash and dry it in the salad spinner; make batches of pesto and freeze it in ice cube trays before transferring to Ziploc bags. Come winter, drop a few cubes into steaming pasta or pots of vegetable soup for an intense smell and taste of summer.

Or visit an apple orchard. You will be amazed by the variety of apples to be found in a good orchard with both modern and heirloom trees—Yokos, Limbertwigs, Winter Bananas, and Honey Crisps have little in common with the long-refrigerated and overgrown apples found in grocery stores. Your kids will also get a swift biology lesson about pollination. Apple growers typically keep bees (pick up some honey, too!) and are always ready to speculate about the colony collapse disorder that is threatening future harvests. Here on the southside of Atlanta, try H & H Orchards • 106 Colvin Drive, Locust Grove, GA (678) 432-6555.

Pumpkin patches, too, are an opportunity to marvel at nature’s sheer creativity. Who’d think of designing something edible that’s so huge, so—well, orange? Picking out the perfect pumpkins for porch and table has become an art form, and many farms have enhanced the experience with hay rides and corn mazes and Jack o’ Lantern carving lessons.
www.georgiaorganics.org/organic_directory;
www.allaboutapples.com/orchard/ga01.htm
www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/GApumpkins.php
www.aboutyule.com

Happy Halloween!
If there’s anything nicer than hearing scuffling and giggling on the porch and flinging open the door to a bevy of bright little faces, I don’t know what it could possibly be. Although the trend, alas, is for kids to go to “safe” parties, have a heart and stop by all those houses that are dressed to the nines for Halloween. Trust me, they’re disappointed when you don’t go. It’s also a great way to actually meet your neighbors.

Parties are terrific, too. But forget orange and black. Go green for Halloween! www.greenhalloween.org is a good source of ideas for a more earth-friendly celebration, from sending forest-friendly invitations via www.evite.com or www.regards.com to how to make a bejeweled black cat from—seriously—a laundry detergent jug.

Sometimes Halloween becomes just one more item on our lengthy to-do lists. Strike that. Instead of running out to the store at the last second to sweep up a boring pre-fab costume, put your kids in charge. Talk to them. Help them come up with some ideas and let them loose, armed with creativity and safety pins. One of my kids decided to be a laundry basket one year, and although it took a little patience to cut a hole in the bottom of the basket and add straps, we all had a blast adding laundry and pinning it all over her from hat to sneakers. And I can assure you that an overflowing laundry basket was a lot scarier than yet another princess when her victims opened their doors.

A word about trick-or-treaters. Whatever well-meaning articles tell you, kids do not want toothbrushes, raisins or pencils at Halloween. That rates as a trick in their books. You can get by with organic chocolate (Bug Bites are cute, and good, too) if you must, but what they really want is CANDY. We eat very healthily most of the time (greens and whole grains every day? crudités at a party? Yum!) but at Halloween, all bets are off.

Spiritual Renewal
For many people, religion is their source of strength and grace. A retreat, whether for a day, a weekend, or a week, gives you a break from your everyday life and a chance to regain a sense of perspective and calmness. Once you return home you will find it easier to keep peace in your heart and to take charge of your life again. Retreats for children are also becoming very popular and usually involve some great activities like climbing and ropes courses or art classes as well as spiritual discussion.

You can find retreats anywhere from monasteries to yoga centers (many are non-denominational) or you may want to ask your own spiritual leader for a recommendation.

The Calvin Center is offering a Middle School Retreat on October 17-19 (www.calvincenter.org)
and Callaway Gardens has planned Kick Off Your Heels, a women’s retreat that promises to “revitalize your body, refresh your soul, and renew your spirit” for October 10-12 (callawaygardens.com)

Head for the Hills
Nature is truly the best healer. Atlanta is beautiful in the fall, but for real drama, head north to the mountains, where ridge after ridge of crimson and gold will blow you away. Dahlonega and its surrounding wine country is just a daytrip away; or if you have a weekend to play with, try Asheville or take the Blue Ridge Parkway to Blowing Rock. Leaf-peeping hits its peak around the third week of October in the Appalachians.
www.dahlonega.org,
www.exploreasheville.com,
www.blowingrock.com

But don’t just look at the leaves, play in them. Walk in the woods, maybe hike the Appalachian Trail for a little way or seek out a waterfall. Look for vivid orange and red bittersweet in the trees. Collect buckeyes and acorns and take them home as a treat for the squirrels. Don’t forget to stop at roadside stands on the way home for cider, apples and preserves.

The Joy of Making Stuff
Remember being a preschooler, totally immersed in the infinite possibilities and wonderfully squishy feel of Play-Do? There’s absolutely no reason why everyone from kindergarteners to great-grandparents shouldn’t relax and stimulate their minds with the same kind of immersion and break from their usual routine, whether they’ve been “touched by the pottery fairy” or not—there can be as much, or even more, pleasure in the process as in the product.

Look for hand-building or wheel pottery classes; maybe try making jewelry or stained glass, or weaving or basket-making. There are classes geared to each age. And it’s remarkable how a surly teenager will light up if entrusted with a welding torch in a metal-working class.

Or try this as a way to preserve the memory of those fabulous gingko and maple leaves you picked up in the woods: roll bronze, gold or red polymer clay (Sculpey or Kato) until it’s quite thin. Carefully place a leaf on the clay and use a rolling pin to press it into the clay. Remove the leave and check that the edges of the leaf and the veins are clearly defined. Use a sharp knife to cut around the edge of the leaf (an adult should help small children) and bake as recommended by the manufacturer. If you have used plain clay, you can paint when cool. Scatter your “leaves” on a festive dinner table.

Planting Bulbs, the Ultimate Act of Faith
One of my earliest memories is of planting spring bulbs with my grandmother, feeling unaccountably at peace as she patiently showed me how to tuck drab lumps into the cooling earth. And then, spring, and no, she hadn’t been kidding about the glory that was hidden away in there.

On 9/11 I found myself instinctively heading to the garden store for gorgeous “Remembrance” crocuses to plant as a promise that the world would be beautiful again. Every year, now, my kids and I head joyfully out into the bonfire-scented air to add more “promises” to our garden.

Planting is a twofer, after all. It rewards us with both the calming effect of contact with the earth and the lessons of patience, planning, and learning how to see the Tahitian daffodil sleeping under a dull surface.

Meditation
Forget beads, Beatles and incense. Meditation is proven to lower blood pressure, relieve stress, improve academic and job performance and cut alcohol and drug abuse. It’s so simple and so effective that doctors like Harvard Medical School’s Professor Herbert Benson frequently “prescribe” it. Even kids can do it. So what’s not to like?

Just sit quietly, eyes closed, and progressively tense, then release, every muscle in your body. Focus on your breathing. Then silently repeat a word on every out breath—Benson recommends ‘one’, but you can use anything that has no particular association—for ten to twenty minutes. If you find your mind wandering (and you will) just go back to your word. Rest for a moment. And you’re done. Small children can do this for a minute for every year of their age, and should walk while they’re doing it.

Build a Leaf Labyrinth
Put away the mind-blowingly noisy leafblower. Spend a merry afternoon with your kids raking the leaves into a temporary labyrinth—no Minotaur required. Labyrinths have been used for centuries as a kind of walking meditation or substitute pilgrimage; one of the most famous medieval labyrinths can be found in Chartres Cathedral. The idea is to follow a single path with many turns as a way to lose track of the outside world and quiet your internal dialogue.

In modern days, labyrinths can be found in many retreats, both secular and religious, and in the grounds of some Planetree-affiliated hospitals. Some schools have also installed them as a place for children with ADHD or a temporary tantrum to quiet down.

But labyrinths don’t have to be serious and contemplative. You can be playful. You can sing, or pray, or listen to the birdsong. Just walk.

Yoga
Want to start your day right? Salute the sun. It’s one of yoga’s best moves, flowing from pose to pose with a stretch for every muscle, and I guarantee you that spending ten minutes in the morning doing a few sun salutations will make your body and mind function a whole lot better all day.
That goes for your kids, too. Small children have a flexibility that could make you weep, so help them keep it with classes especially designed for them. Shorter attention spans mean that they will probably learn how to pose briefly like a certain animal or flower, rather than doing, say, a sustained Garudasana.

And a 2003 study found that kids who took yoga classes not only had better body awareness and self-esteem but also had better GPAs and test results as well as fewer disciplinary problems. Researchers reason that improved focus is one of the many benefits of yoga. As a bonus, yoga will give children the ability to handle the ever-increasing complexity of life as they move to middle school, then high school, then college.
www.jtmyoga.com
www.carouselofdancearts.com

Host a Bonfire
Let’s face it, barbecuing has got to the point where people have virtually built a whole kitchen out of doors.

Get a little further back to nature one cool autumn night by building a simple fire pit in your backyard—just arrange a ring of rocks in a circle, and build your fire. Bring out a few low chairs, or arrange some blankets around it. Younger children will need sparklers to dazzle them as they dance while older children will need hot dogs to poke over the fire on long sticks and, of course, the making of S’mores; a simple tripod and camping pot will heat milk for hot chocolate. Breathe deep and look up at the stars.

You will be amazed at what you will hear. Your angst-ridden teenager will start throwing out clues to the reason for those dark silences, or shyly talk about his pleasure in his art teacher’s unexpected praise—something you never heard about before. Your middle-schooler will finally ‘fess up to her nervousness in the jungle of the cafeteria. Your little one will tell you about how he wants to be friends with Ben (who?). There’s just something about the dark night and the leaping flames that makes confidences easy.

When the fire has burned down to white ash, make simple pioneer-style ash cakes by mixing flour (any kind, particularly corn meal) with just enough water to make a dough—add some fresh or frozen berries if you like, or a few chocolate chips. Pat dough balls into rounds and put them into the ashes to cook, wipe off the ashes and think of your pioneer ancestors while you eat them.

Go on an Adventure
First you say you can’t do it, no way, no how. You’re just too scared. Then you go ahead and do it anyway and get an adrenaline rush—I DID IT! And afterwards you’re left with a new faith in your abilities, a shot in the arm of confidence that you can draw on later to get past those little roadblocks that life throws up.

Ziplines, ropes courses, rock climbing, Outward Bound; all big confidence boosters; all available in or near Atlanta. Facilitators are usually adept at teaching team-building strategies for families and companies, and teenagers in particular can benefit enormously from a challenge course.

The Lodges at Historic Banning Mills (www.historicbanningmills.com) has a fabulous zipline canopy tour that will take you skimming through fall foliage and across the Snake Creek Gorge, maybe you’ll even see a red-tail hawk or two. Afterwards, try geo-caching for brain-stimulating fun or wind down in a Jacuzzi.

Relax
There’s a world of scientific evidence that relaxation, meditation, and joy can actually alter the way our brains are wired to improve our health, intelligence and well-being. But quite honestly, do we need to look at the science?

As popular wisdom has it, “no-one says on his death-bed, gee, I wish I’d spent more time at the office.”

This fall, go out into the crisp air and make some wonderful memories with your family.