we need november in our lives

​More than ever, I think we need November in our lives. And no, I'm not talking about November 3 - I'm talking simply about November.

November has reflection built into it. November is the calendar home to Thanksgiving, a day that challenges us to stop - if we haven't thought to do so any other time of the year - it warns us to stop and count blessings.

November, full of it's beauty, can inspire us to get ahead of ourselves. It can find us imagining the beauty - some hope - in life ahead. But before we get there, November always seems to be reminding us to stop, look back, take stock of all the beauty that brought us where we are and to remind us of all we've been gifted and all we've overcome.

I was running yesterday in the crisp Halloween temperatures. I joke that fall running is always the start of running season for me. I find running an easier undertaking in the cool of autumn than it is in the heat and humidity of August.

It's easy to forget, though, when the fall running starts to come easy, that it's been made easier by the hardships running brought me back in the summer. It's easy to forget that fall beauty is built on the growth of spring and summer.

I think, sometimes, it's easy to be so awed by the beauty of November that we forget to stop and count the beauty of all that got us here. Maybe that's especially challenging this November.

It's been a tough year for all of us. And maybe for some, it's been a year that has seemed to throw layer after layer of struggle on lives already filled with plenty of it.

But it's November. If we stop and look around we can be awed by the beauty of it.

We can be reminded of some beauty in our lives that has made it are easier to spot the beauty we can find in November.

We can be reminded of some dark moments in our lives we've overcome and that make it easier to delight in the light of November.

Oh, it's a November for sure where we look for reminders in the beauty of it all that there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel. But it's also a November to remember the tunnel wasn't all empty and black.

It just wasn't.

We have carried a lot of beauty with us into November. And we'll need it, we will need it and each other and all the beauty we bring to each other's lives, we'll need to remember it all as we roll into December.

We'll need it as we begin creating the next November in our lives.