Goodbye Summer

 

Fall has slammed down like a guillotine.  Officially, Autumn does not start for almost three more weeks, but the season is here now and seems disinclined to take “no” for an answer.  I’m already swabbing heavy condensation from my car windows before I can take off down my driveway in the early, misty mornings.  The crabtrees lining my way to the cafe are shooting off little sparks of red and orange, teasers for the real show coming in a few weeks.  My planters are lush, green and bursting with blossoms, yet I know in thirty days or less they will be frost-bitten and bedraggled.

It was such an odd summer.  Short and hot and drizzly and humid, with a couple of truly spectacular thunderstorms thrown in for good measure.  The good weather has held when we needed it to, but the rest of the time, it has gone off on several unusual tangents.  We’ve hardly had a week with no rain…very unusual for this part of the world.   So the summer that never really was has receded down the road and made room for my favorite time of year to unfold grandly, albeit a bit prematurely.

I wish the coming of autumn was not so symbolic of my life.  I don’t want to care that the days are shortening and the end of the year is roaring up on me like a freight train.  I just want to stand outside, open my arms wide and gather it all in.  Into my lungs, into my arms, into my spirit. 

Welcome, beautiful season.  Let us embrace and dance a lingering pas de deux before the winter curtain falls.   

Tags: Fall is here