Never have I ever lived in a house with a big, wrap-around porch and a long staircase for stacking pumpkins on each step. I’ve been blessed to live in some nice, comfortable homes in my lifetime, but nope. Not one with a big front porch like that. Still that never stopped me from carving pumpkins with my boys when they were young or from creating smaller displays of pumpkins, mums, and Indian corn over the years. October brings all those memories back, and more.
For instance, never have I ever traveled through New England to take in the fall colors everyone exclaims about in Vermont or Maine. I’ve seen photos. I know they are multi-colored and awe-inspiring, but never have I ever seen them with my own eyes.
I did, however, see the multi-colored leaves in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee every year for the first twenty years of my life. And for almost 50 years now I’ve watched with anticipation for the first hint of gold in the Colorado aspen, knowing that the glorious golden show they put on annually is about to appear. It never gets old driving up in to the mountains to see the aspen groves aglow or gaze at a mountain side with pockets of gold gleaming amidst the evergreens.
And we do get some color here, too! The red maples offer bright contrast and the foothills covered in scrub oak look like a patchwork quilt is being pulled up over their shoulders in preparation for winter. I’m not too deprived after all.
Fall is a wonderful time for hiking. Never have I ever hiked to the top of Pike’s Peak, America’s Mountain that towers over Colorado Springs where I live. But I have hiked on parts of it, and I’ve ridden to the top on the cog railroad and gotten to see the marmots that live among the rocks above tree line. Hot chocolate and homemade donuts at the Visitor Center are more my speed these days than climbing 14,115 feet, so I guess I’ll never do it, but I’m proud of everyone I know who reached the top on two legs.
Never have I ever been a barrel racer at a rodeo or ridden in to the arena in a sequined outfit on a white horse as “The Girl of the West,” but I grew up with a horse named Dolly who was my best friend, and I took riding lessons from my talented equestrian granddaughter in my seventies.
Never have I ever seen the dancing lights of the aurora borealis, but many times “I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky” as John Denver sang. Never have I ever swum with dolphins, but I’ve been on a boat in the midst of a super pod of 2,000 dolphins with tears running down my face at the sheer majesty of them. Never have I ever played hockey, but I once got to drive a Zamboni!
There are so many “nevers” I could mention, but those of us in the autumn of our lives will be happier thinking about all the things we’ve been blessed to experience rather than regretting what we may have missed. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s to “never say never.” Many of the things we haven’t seen or done could still happen. So stay ready!