Clarification

Okay, my Ode to Autumn was obviously NOT referring to this weather, which, despite my love of fall and easy to please nature, depresses me! 

Ode to Autumn

Looking for blog ideas, my friend Luke Giroux suggested this:

“Maybe some of the joys, excitement, and anticipation of going back to school? Or changing of the seasons; life marches on.  I've always felt that the seasons, here in New England, force us to move on with life. No matter how much we lament the end of a hot summer, or how much we want to capture the essence of our kids or our lives at any given moment in time, mother nature will always inform us that there's a much higher power at work here, marshaling us through time and space.”

Fall being one of my favorite seasons (I have a few!), I thought this was a wonderful suggestion.  I still get a flutter of excitement in my stomach with that first breath of crisp air.  I LOVE buying new notebooks and pencils and backpacks.  Not just because it means my kids will be back at school - offering me much needed peace and quiet, but because it excites me!  My mother used to cover my textbooks in this thick, clear, rubbery plastic, and it had such a distinct smell.  A back to school smell.  Just like new pencil cases with those plastic sliders.  I loved brand new workbooks, never before opened - where I got to ‘break the spine’.  (Does it surprise you that I became a teacher?)  

Fall brought all new possibilities: new friends to be made, new adventures to be had, new experiences as someone one ‘year’ older.  A new locker, a new class schedule, new teachers.  And of course there were back to school clothes and brand new school shoes!  Aunt Genevieve would take me to Dayton’s Oval Room and buy me designer clothes off the sale rack (back when I wore a size 2).

  I love the cooler temperature, the crisp air, the earthy smell of wet leaves.  I used to seek out the brown, brittle leaves trying to find ones that made the loudest crunch (I still do!).  The sky looks bluer to me on a gorgeous October day.  It’s the beginning of apple picking, mulled cider and butternut squash soup.  Fires in the fireplace and cozy sweaters.  Football and tailgating (Yes, believe it or not, there was a time where I did this.  Regularly!).  Indian summer - that last little tease of warm weather; I can still hear my grandmother explaining it to me.  Raking leaves and diving in piles (not so fun for me anymore but my seven year old still loves it).  Halloween!  I remember trick or treating with my friend Lee in Brooklyn Heights, under the street lamps, kicking leaves as we walked, thinking ‘It doesn’t get any better than this!’  I still think that every year, as I walk my kids around our West Hartford neighborhood.  As corny as this makes me sound, every time I see one of those huge maple trees with golden-orangey yellow leaves, so brilliant it looks like its lit from within, I smile.  It brings me joy.  True, simple joy.

However, as Luke said, it’s also about Mother Nature herself.  There is an ushering-in of what’s next.  Time marches on, which sometimes is a relief.  Life and its cycles keep moving forward, and we follow suit.  As Eckhart Tolle discusses in “A New Earth”, there is a natural expansion and contraction to life, a rhythm.  Autumn to me, is like the grand finale of the fireworks shows.  The trees give this amazing display of color - the last hurrah before they wind down for winter.  The final breath of expansion before contracting.  Not only do I like the guidance that nature provides with this cycle, but I’m okay with contracting for part of the year.  (Maybe I’m part bear?)

I’m not always the eternal optimist, but I guess with seasons I am.  There is always something to look forward to, a change just around the corner.  The anticipation of that change is enough to keep me going!  By the time fall winds down, and the air is permanently chilly, then its time to watch for the quiet magic of that first snow fall.  For now though, I am going out to enjoy this gorgeous fall day!