I have always loved the autumn season. The temperature cools, the leaves change color and a new chapter opens.
The year begins with a rebirth of sorts, recognized by a litany of New Year’s pledges and the excitement of having passed midway through the ice and chill of winter. Before long the grass starts to grow, the flowers begin to bloom and the world is again alive with color. Soon after, we become accustomed to warm days, water parks and cookouts on the patio. Summer is a fickle fille de joie, she comes quickly, almost unexpectedly and entices us with trips to the beach, days at the pool and for the young, an end to school. In this reverie, we lose track of time and are jolted awake by the start of school, the first chilly winds and the quickening pace of the falling leaves. Summer has left us without even a note, let alone a fond farewell.
It is the autumn season I find the most profound. Unlike the carefree and thoughtless days of summer, autumn is a time for reflection. The children are made back to their studies and briefly forgotten routines reestablished. The young find themselves in a grade one more advanced and adults note that the year has progressed much too fast; it is life that has progressed much too fast.
One more year, almost over. Were the pledges made at the beginning kept? Did the year turn out to be prosperous or is it one we would rather see quickly fade away? In autumn the year has formed its character, its personality has been established and there is nothing left but for these traits to crystallize into the ice of winter.
Transition always brings with it a degree of excitement. We quickly forget the decadent days of summer, replacing them with the excited anticipation of the holiday season. Halloween is on the distant horizon! It too comes quickly, like a ghoul in the night that soon will be pounding on our door in the forms of witches, superheros and vampires demanding sweetened sustenance.
It is a contemplative experience to sit on the porch swing in the cool air and listen to the rustle of the fallen leaves. Life is to be savored and the bouquet of autumn is elegant indeed.
