"When an early autumn walks the land and chills the breeze, and touches with her hand the summer trees, perhaps you'll understand what memories I own..."
It's actually a song about love almost lost, with a plea to never have an 'early autumn' again in their relationship. But how well its melancholy tone lends itself to what is the most bittersweet season of them all...exquisite but tinged with sadness, a new beginning but also another goodbye.
I was born in October, so I'm an 'autumn baby' which could account for it being my favorite time of year (except for school starting again!) As a child, I remember saying "It looks like God turned some of his paint pots upside down and poured them on to the trees!" ~ the colors were that vivid and alive. With the exception of summer meaning no school as a child and as a sun-worshipping human lizard until my mid-30s, I was never a fan of the hottest season of the year. The older I get, the more I dislike it...too uncomfortable, too sweaty, and far too many people out and about!
But as August slowly wends her way toward September, so do the first harbingers of fall make themselves known...the screeching cicadas herald summer's imminent end, the days grow ever shorter, and one can literally feel the difference in the heat, even during the "dog days of summer," because the sun has already begun its ancient journey in the sky, moving off to warm other places, and leaving us to enjoy her sister season in all her glory.
Yes, there is a melancholy aura to it, and that often painful, bittersweet feeling of yet another summer gone, tucked away into the chapters of our lives. But, like everything else, you take the good with the bad, and we don't really have much of a choice anyway, do we?
As for me, I will welcome those first crisp days of needing a light jacket, the incredible fall foliage (and that great crunchy sound of stepping on dried and fallen leaves,) buying peanuts for all my little squirrel friends so they have a good supply for winter, and all the other lovely sights, sounds and smells of the season.
And as for the melancholia it inevitably brings with it, a musical collaboration between Rod McKuen and Frank Sinatra produced a song called "Empty Is."
I always recall these words at this time of year...
"Empty is a string of dirty days, held together by some rain. And the cold winds drumming at the trees again. Empty is the color of the fields, long about September, when the days go marching in a line toward November..."
Yes, but they will continue to march in a line toward spring again too, so enjoy each and every season for what it has to offer and be happy that you are here to greet another.
