Listen to this post:
Five o’clock in the morning is a different place when the sun is still hiding. The clock is the only thing that remains constant from those lovely mornings when light was already creeping across the yard. We have the cool stillness still, but the light is a physical cue that day has begun to reassure a weary body and soul that it is not total madness to climb out of that cozy bed, and that cue has slowly vanished since the summer solstice more than two months ago.
I felt the cool late-August breeze when I ventured outside. “Here I come,” autumn whispered. I resisted — summer can’t leave yet! It can’t be time to pack up for fall and winter, I haven’t finished unpacking for spring and summer.
But something in the trees is not quite fully green anymore. The breeze is still warm enough to be refreshing — more refreshing than a hot summer breeze, if I’m honest — but it reminds us that if there’s to be warmth in coming months, we will have to make it ourselves.
I have always said that the first day of school deceives us into believing that summer is over, because of course there are still three weeks before the fall equinox and the official first day of autumn. Still, with September upon us I can’t deny that the inevitable change is in the air.
Those of us who live near the 45th parallel like to say we love the four seasons, but if I’m honest love is a word I would apply to only three seasons, and so I have a bittersweet feeling as I eye the calendar and ask, “Where has the time gone?” It has gone the same way it has always gone, of course, long time passing, long time ago.
Three Willows is near the southern border of a summer vacation paradise, and the highway that parallels my front porch will grow less frantic as getaway season transforms into fall colors season and finally into the quiet season. That’s a blessing. There are always blessings to be found whatever the season, and that comforts me as I brace myself gently for what’s coming.
