The Coming Season

Nighttime is growing inexorably longer again, dark hands dragging down the dawn, minute by minute, and pushing the dusk ahead. At this time in my life, longer nights shouldn’t be a welcome thought; they are already tediously lengthened by restive, sleepless hours spent throwing the covers off, and then burrowing back into them twenty minutes later. Yet, autumn has always been a time of awakening for me, much like Spring is for most other people. Something about the angle of the sun, the first tinges of red and yellow appearing among summer-parched leaves, brings a flash of surprise (Yikes! Is summer over already?) and then an itchiness to DO something. Over the years, the turning of the calendar to the month of September has inspired me to plunge head-first into home remodeling, community college classes, major landscaping projects…I seem to accomplish way more during Autumn than I do any other time of year.

I used to think my late-year awakening was a conditioned response. After all, like most humans in this society, I spent thirteen of the first eighteen Septembers of my life embarking upon the life-altering adventure of a new school year. To this day, when the earth-tone plaids, turtlenecks and boots begin to take center-stage in the catalogs and department stores, I’m drawn to them like a lemming to a cliff…until I realize I’m not going anywhere that I will need those lovely trappings...

You would think in the thirty-three intervening years, the "back to school" instinct would have faded. Maybe it has. Maybe my autumn restlessness is due to an even more primal instinct. In the natural world, hibernating animals are at their busiest this time of year—spending every waking hour searching for and consuming anything and everything that will keep them going during the long, somnolent winter days. Perhaps I’m just feathering my nest…preparing my cave for the necessary dormancy of winter. Thankfully, I’m not experiencing the hyperphagia—the irresistible drive to eat anything I can get my paws on. Then again, chocolate, bread, potatoes, and large chunks of red meat are looking awfully good to me these days…as I resignedly inhale my salad and Diet Pepsi.

Whatever the reason, or for no good reason at all, I love Autumn. I welcome it with arms wide, and a hammer, broom, or shovel in my hands. By the time the winter rainssettle in, I’ll have tired myself out enough to be content to sit in front of the fire with a down blanket, a cat, and a book in my lap.