Here is what i think today:
Fall has always been somehow more weighty, more meaningful to me...close to my heart. to me it signifies both the beginning and the end of something, an inevitable change, reluctance and readiness, color and chill.....life and death.......
see the beauty in change?but here.. with no changing colors as a signal, or cool breezes to allow us to prepare, it seems that things are changing for many of those that are around me this Fall.. with no warning and no forgiveness. Many people are coming around to realizations that they have been putting off, some sweethearts may be falling out of love, families are grieving those have reluctantly lost their battles to sickness--my friends are mournful and aching from these changes....most of them had no breeze or bright colors to warn them that a shift was on the horizon...and, yet, life changes, and when drastically, it happens whether you are ready or not, with no apology.
i was born in the Fall.... i feel and know a great connection to the autumn months so much so that i had them marked permanently on my body. a constant reminder to me that those vibrant colors are always there! and always will be....that change always happens, that it may hurt, but you can always somehow, miraculously take that pain.. It is passing....cyclical...expect it and accept it! beauty is somehow always lurking behind the transformation...though fleeting it may be.
but i miss the colors this year. i miss that breeze that blows in the late afternoon that signals to us the days are shortening and life is pulling the leaves from the trees. i can almost smell that shift in there air when it is Fall in Michigan... the traditions of cider mills, afternoon drives, of pulling out sweaters, preparing ourselves for the transition. this fall is different somehow.
i do feel though that even after the leaves that fall, when some are saddened by or feel betrayed by this shift...that the piles of leaves gather, and if you look close enough, and try as you might.....
you may be able to see the small smile, a glint of hope and promise behind those changing colors...that happiness awaits if that is what you seek. no matter how hard they try to cling to the trees, that the leaves fall, for this they must...
