Autumn

Ah autumn! I love this time of year! The change of seasons...this change to fall is my favorite time of the year. I get a sense of the slowing of the clock. The days seem to moderate and gentle. Everything takes on a bit of a patina that isn't there any other time of year. Have you ever noticed how the blue of the skies intensifies in the fall? It is bluer now than at any other time of year....Photoshop blue, if you will. Poloroid blue. Photographers will know exactly what I mean when I say that...that deep, intense, clear blue that almost looks unnatural. It glows. It pulses. It swallows one into the depths. It is cloudless and crisp and pristine. It is the perfect canvas against which to paint the progressive color of the leaves as they give their last glorious display before they crisp to brown and leave the trees to crunch underfoot.

The air is intoxicating. It carries the taste of apples and woodsmoke on it, with a hint of coming frost that lurks somewhere....quiescent and unhurried. It begs to be taken into the lungs, breathed deep and smelled, tasted, savored, appreciated, and remembered. You can wrap yourself in that air like a gossamer shawl....light and unassuming, but oh, so wonderful!

Autumn is a pause in the year...nature's way of giving man a minute to stop and unwind; a hiatus, a time to drop off the burdens of the other seasons. A precious moment in time to slow down and look nature in the eyes for just a few minutes; to appreciate those glories that are all around us before they wither away into the snows and winds of winter.