I think I have mentioned before one of the things I love about living in Kentucky is the changing of the seasons.

I even like the changing of the weather. It makes each day a little more exciting. I am sure I would be bored if I lived in a state where the weather stayed the same year around.

Now, I must admit when we have had days on end of rain, I get tired of seeing that much rain all at once, but it does gives me time to take care of my inside work. I never seem to get everything accomplished I want to.

When it is freezing cold in the winter, I love watching the snow fall inside my home. I also love to bake on those days. It seems so cozy to be cooking during that time. The extra warmth from the oven keeps the house warm.

When I lived in the country and helped on the farm, I did not enjoy winter as much as I do now. I remember having to wait for the pipes to unfreeze before we could use the water when I first began housekeeping. The frozen pipes could put everything to a standstill.

Luckily building a house changed that because the water pipes were in the basement. The ponds used to freeze over to the point we had to use a chainsaw or axe to cut a hole in the pond for the cattle to get a drink of water.

I also remember when newborn farm animals were brought into the house and bottle-fed to keep them from freezing to death when the weather was brutally cold.

The winters used to be so much worse it seemed years ago. I think global warming is making the difference.

The beautiful spring and fall seasons in Kentucky always seem to make one forget how the brutality of winter or the broiling heat of summer make us uncomfortable for such a short time of our lives.

Spring comes with such beauty with the greenery of the trees coming back to life and the blooming of the wildflowers across our beautiful state. Spring and fall are times we need to get out and enjoy a ride to the mountains to fully experience their beauty.

The excitement you witness from others as you meet them in the stores at springtime seem to overflow throughout the state during the spring. People seem to appreciate the change in the weather and the feeling of new life.

To me, the celebration of Easter is perfect that it happens in the spring since Christ gave us the hope of new life that even a tomb could not contain his life. Even winter can not hold the beauty spring brings, no matter how freezing cold it can be.

Fall is a masterpiece of beauty with its kaleidoscope of glory. While spring reminds me of a newborn baby just beginning its life, fall reminds me of the time of life I am in now.

I have learned a lot by this season of my life. I have learned what I expected in my life did not always turn out the way I thought it would. The winds blew and at times life became brutal. I learned not everyone could be trusted. I learned that even a weatherman could not determine our weather. He has to wait to see how the weather turns out the same as I do.

I learned the only person to truly depend on is God to get you through your hard times or any weather. I learned who true friends are. I learned how important good friends are that you know you can trust.

Sadly, I have learned how gullible I am.

I also learned to get through major health issues. I learned how important faith is to keep you from never giving up on life. I learned how blessed I have been to have so many blessings I could never count them all. I learned each day I have a choice to be thankful for it or take it for granted. I look at the leaves that fall each day in season and I realize how close I am to the winter of my life.

This Sunday at church my friend Joyce Barnes gave me list of quotes, I don’t know who said this: “Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself, ‘I, not events have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day and I am going to be happy.’”

Though my life has had more beauty than heartache, like the beauty of fall, our lives become bare at times and we fall like the leaves.

I look at life like the seasons of our lives. Spring represents new life, then we bud and bloom, become teenagers where we are still green but think we are so grown up and begin to make our mark in the world not aware that we are still in the springtime of our lives.

During the summer of our lives, we marry, have children and think we are in charge of our lives but realize we never will be when so many things happen so quickly within such a short time of our lives.

Those precious babies grow up and marry, many of us lose our parents during that time and we begin to think we started to look older. It may be the fact that we have grand babies. Of course we each have the smartest and cutest babies of anyone else.

Fall seems to arrive sooner every year and with it a different ache, pain or problem seems to accompany it. For example, as soon as you think everything is going good something major will either happen to you or tear up in your home.

By this time you are pretty much used to life being unpredictable. Hopefully, you have learned to just go on and some days be like Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone With The Wind:”  “I won’t think of this today, after all tomorrow is another day.”

Sometimes Scarlett’s way of thinking works because tomorrow you may have a clearer head. It does not take you long to realize the problem has to be taken care of and the sooner the better.

Whatever season of life you are in, I hope you are doing well and know how to take the lemons and make lemonade during the bad seasons of life. Do your best to enjoy every season of nature and life.

Sue Staton is a Clark County native who grew up in the Kiddville area. She is a wife, mother and grandmother who is active at First United Methodist Church and Towne and Country Homemakers.