The Official Start of fall being less than two weeks away (#pumpkinspice white women & all things retail would argue differently I know, I know) has brought my favorite time of the year for reflection with trepidation. Yes, it’s customary to wait til the end of the year to somehow reflect & project, I typically find that September is much more inviting for this kind of thinking. The summer/fall change for me has always been more brutally honest. Those leaves changing colors, drifting from the safety of those branches year after year without fail, brings about a visceral set of emotions. The temps suddenly turning cool to crisp in the mornings, the smell of recently re-landscaped lawns, all are too beautiful to ignore.
This year however with so much uncertainty, with so many unanswered questions still looming, can I count on my yearly season of change to bring me that inner peace? September 22 on one hand feels so far away. Pandemic be damned, Foreign affairs growing ever more unsteady, and yet it’s coming still the same. The unpacking of your favorite sweater, searching frantically for that elusive hoodie. The online shopping for that new pair of boots, that long awaited trip to a cabin by the lake. School, studies, bus stops, and that ever growing craft beer market! (can there really be that many variations of pumpkin brews?) There are so many tried and true instances to look forward to, that surely I can forge ahead and regain my confidence! I can find that spark that shows me year after year after year whether leaves fall sooner than normal or later than I’d like, the autumn season shall never disappoint.
There are those who prob dread the shorter days, the coming angst of who to invite for Thanksgiving? People often find numerous reasons to long for anything but the changing of the seasons, but to ask for 24/7 365 days of monotony sounds more dreadful than anything if you ask me! Those limbs that crack loudly as they realize they no longer can sustain life on that 75 yr old tree, or that barn that finally gives way before the coming winter as it slithers to the ground only to stay lopsided for years to come are things of genuine beauty. Fall and all of its trappings shall always bring about joy and change for the better.
While Autumn never lasts long enough for my liking; it’s with apologies to Robert Frost that I must concur “nothing gold can stay indeed”
Santangelo Says 