There’s something about this time of year.
…smelling the first fire in the wood stove.
…seeing a different slant to the sun and a mysterious glow to the moon.
…remembering when donning my mother’s clothes and jewelry turned me into whatever fictitious character I wanted to be.
…flashing back three decades ago when my babes dressed up like Raggedy Ann and Peter Rabbit.
…recalling the aroma of chilidogs and French fries at the Mountain Hill School Halloween Carnival over half a century ago.
…and hearing the dry leaves rustle in the old oak trees.
This time of year is the last hurrah of flora and fauna before the freeze sets in…nature’s finale before she colors the landscape grey.
It is the beginning of the end of this year.
Or is it?
In the wink of an eye, we declare it officially fall, feast on Thanksgiving dinner, gather around the Christmas tree, end the old and salute the new.
But we dance in a circle from one year to the next…there is no linear beginning and end.
And the part of the circle in which we find ourselves now is one of change…a shift in the earth’s axis that happens every year…
…a shift that begins with the first fire of the season and Halloween. Although disguises are secretly worn every day, on October 31, our masks are perfectly acceptable.
But the celebration is not over when the illusion ends – it is just beginning. For now is the time we gather the plants inside and those we love come home.
So let us bask in the colors of fall and the changes of the season. Let us love life with the intensity of a farmer harvesting the fields.
Because, before we know it, the red and golden leaves will turn to brown and fall from the trees, leaving the bare limbs stretching toward the grey skies of winter. The birds will fly to a warmer climate, and the only flowers in our gardens will be the pansies that hide beneath the mulch when the north wind blows.
This is the time of year when we recount every glorious fall we have ever enjoyed, while preparing for the winter with vision.
This is the time of year we renew our faith that the cycle will continue.
This is the time of year we celebrate why we dance in the circle from one year to another.