Saturday was the perfect fall day in Northwestern Minnesota.Following the meandering Wild Rice River from Mahnomen, through the little hamlet of Faith, on to Twin Valley - then veering south past the underground church in Syre, into Ulen, and finally the back roads into Hawley was at times like being transported into the middle of the stereotypical New England fall with country church spires reaching up through the verdant leaves of early autumn as the still green mixed with the reds, yellows and brown of autumn.

My timing isn’t usually this good.

It seems ages since I’ve seen this transition occur.  Some years my timing is just off and I’m unable to make it back into the home country for the turning of the colors.  Some years, a hard frost followed by a good stiff wind that the plains are famous for make the transition from summer to fall to winter all to brief.

But this year was different.  The colors were just about perfect, not quite their peak, but close enough.

As I drove through the country side taking in what could be the last warm days of the fall, looking at the ripening corn and soybeans still sitting in the field and the wheat stubble in various stages of tillage and regrowth, I reminded myself just how lucky I am.

My health is good and getting better.   My family is all doing well and I would be lucky enough to see the vast majority of them over the course of the short weekend.  Life, while extremely crazy with work and extracurricular activities were keeping me running sixteen hours a day, was fast, fun, but very rewarding.  I was off to see my eldest brother and his family for a short visit then to spend the evening with some very good friends, watching football, rehashing old memories, and finally watching another of my very good friends perform an acoustic musical show.

Sometimes, it is easy to lose perspective on life.  We get bogged down in the big things - economic collapse, frustrating jobs, people we have lost, the bills that need to be paid.  Or sometimes even the little things - the presentation at work, the gossip from the coffee shop, the slight from the friend.

Spending time with my brothers and my dad, teasing my nieces and nephews, talking with my friends from college - those are the things to hold on too, those are the things to remember, those are the things to remember and lift us onward and upwards.  Those are the things that matter.