Autumn and Remembrance

What is Autumn for you? Is it an energizing change of weather and pace? Is it the gateway to holiday celebrating? Do you wait for the magical landscapes of Winter? In Colorado mornings and evenings grow cold and the air is rarified. In our foothills the smell of sage grows pungent. Prickly pears, rose hips, choke cherries and service berries abound. In the city wood smoke, dead leaves and the winey smell of apples the ground evoke times past.

Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, has come so soon this year. I'm not Jewish, but have close Jewish friends, and I know this is a time of remembrance and reflection. I like the idea of each person taking time to own his or her contributions, good and bad, for the year. I like looking forward to the sweetness of the year ahead, symbolized by dipping apple slices and bread in honey.

You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person died for no reason. 

― Earnest Hemigway, A Moveable Feast

Songs about Autumn are often sad, harkening to endings, rather than beginnings. To me, Antonio Vivaldi had it right! Now is the time when everything peaks, arousing the senses like a fine vintage. Autumn is a call to action. Clean the house, by all means, but don't forget to leave! Long walks help clear out cobwebs, figurative and literal. 

Sara Ban Breathnach's book, Simple Abundance is a wonderful guide to celebrating home. I rarely endorse books, but I also like her book Peace and Plenty. I plan to start a new journal, completely renovate my personal records, and accomplish things I've been putting off. I've begun a new enterprise involving transitioning people who languish in residential health care. What a great theme for a new year, transition, crossing over to a new place!

Let's look ahead, my friends, with all the fire we can muster, like virtuosos performing Vivaldi's Four Seasons.