Today's Affirmation

"Today I will recognize that there is a season for all things."

 

One of my favorite things, the thing I miss the most about living in New England is the turn of the season from summer to autumn.  Even when I was a girl, there was something about autumn that excited me, exhilarated me. 

 

The change of seasons was palpable in the air.  There seemed to be an electricity.  The air was noticeably cooler.  The trees began to turn to orange and red and brown and burgundy.  And then the leaves would, one by one, flutter to the ground and crunch under my feet as I walked over them.

 

When I was very young, my sister and I would rake up all the leaves in our yard into a giant pile, and then run and jump in them.  What was it about laying in a pile of crunchy leaves that smelled of the end of a season?  I never could put my finger on it, but I loved it just the same.

 

People don't think we have a change of seasons in South Florida, but we do.  Not on the scale of the northern states, but we do experience the transition from summer to fall.  The air is less hot, there is less humidity, the same exhilaration and excitement floats in the breeze, although to one less perceptible, it may go unnoticed.  For me, I can always tell and I always look forward to it.

 

Some of our trees lose their leaves and go dormant until spring-my frangipanies and my crepe myrtles go dormant.  Everything slows down.  The grass grows less quickly.  The pool is too cool to swim.

 

Flocks of birds from the north arrive bringing with them their songs.  The ducks arrive,  We have two brown ducks who come every winter to our yard.  They swim in our pool, eat the seed that has fallen to the ground from the feeder, and just sit in the shade if it's too warm or sit in the sun if it is too cool.  They will generally stay throughout the winter and then leave again in spring.  Their arrival signals to me that life has grown cold and dormant in the northern United States.

 

For me it is a time of Robert Frost-"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood..."  It is a time of Walden and Emerson and Thoreau.  It is a time of transition.  A time of reflection.  A time of change.  It is a time of tying up loose ends, of cleaning out the old and stuffy stuff to make room for new things.  It is a time that leads to holidays and families and celebrations and food and drink and good will.

 

The autumn is part of me, part of all of us.  A critical step in the process of birth and death and renewal.  It is the continuation of a cycle.  It is reliable and constant and that comforts me.  "For all things, there is a season."

 

In Love and Light,

Robin