Finally Fall

Ahhh, autumn.  Crisp night sleeping, bright day beaming, a time of both rebirth and final goodbyes.  Migrating birds; children becoming students once again; old men complaining about their aches and pains; dog days grunt a final, hot farewell; leaves aflame with the promise of winter on their breath. 

Fall seems to be the time when All Things Are Possible. 

I’ve been fortunate to spend a lot of time outdoors these past couple of weeks.  I’ve felt the still stickiness of the final throes of summer morph into high-minded breezes running unseen fingers through the treetops.  The predawn quiet now part of our breakfast ritual; gone are the bright mornings committed to the oppression of heat and humidity.  Nature has flipped the switch…and delivered yet another series of truncated days and tranquil gloaming.  Sitting in the woods is a luxury; listening to the insects play little green fiddles, with the birds answering in kind while the critters scamper in a primordial leaf-rustling dance – it’s part of that celebration of the Cycle that is the Seasons.

Pumpkins are popping up announcing a parade of Halloween’ers coming soon, to a sidewalk near you!  The quick succession of October candy, November turkey and December holidays are beginning that now-familiar promenade.

It seems somewhat trite to reduce the Higher machinations of Fall to a Publix shopping list.  Better to arrange an appointment with the six-legged orchestra in any always-magical forest with your family or significant other…and just sit, for a moment, and listen.

If you’re lucky, you’ll sense that amazing gift of Possibility; worst case, you endure a few moments of uninterrupted solitude, without wi-fi, without television, without politics, 24-hour news cycles, interminable commercial messages – just the ticket for contemplating that fleeting gasp of What Could Be.

It just might be enough to see you through the winter…