Falling Into Autumn

A Moral Tale

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Once again autumn has come to us. It is sheer gift. There is a moral aspect to it (as you will note below).  I am always somewhat somber and sad as fall days unfold. The golden leaves and rich bounty of harvest astounds us anew each year, if you live as I do do in the rich beauty that is Ontario. Or perhaps in a place very much like it.

Spring is my favourite season -- newness, recovery, colour again - and fragrance (though I sneeze with the allergies that blossoms and opening buds bring). I love the summer too and don’t want it to end. Yet, there is a sense in my thinking that autumn fits in as well in the seasons of the year - in between the warmth of summer and the deep cold of winter - come, just as they do in the 'seasons of life.''

Some talk of the grace of autumn, of the clear air, the blue sky, of the red and gold of fields, summach and smokey hills. The dazzling sun shines still though increasingly muted in its warmth. But for me, autumn signals the end of all things and of a long period of rest in-between that's coming - not stealthily but obviously, and of the too long time of grey and white to be faced when there is little colour. Each day is precious but it soon passes; each season too, in its time. It makes me miss loved ones departed whom I, like you, have 'loved and lost awhile.'
 
At this stage of my life there are many years to look back over, to contemplate the things done and the things left undone – and, hopefully, a few remain for me - possibly still, in which to do them. DV
 
Here are some quotes that may put the autumn before us in greater perspective. --
 

“A moral character is attached to autumnal scenes; the leaves falling like our years, the flowers fading like our hours, the clouds fleeting like our illusions, the light diminishing like our intelligence, the sun growing colder like our affections, the rivers becoming frozen like our lives--all bear secret relations to our destinies.” -- Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand, Memories d'Outre-Tombe

“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.” - Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.” - Lauren DeStefano, Wither

“Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first September was crisp and golden as an apple.”  ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

“No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face." [The Autumnal]” - John Donne

“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house." [Notebook, Oct. 10, 1842]” Nathaniel Hawthorne

“Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.” - Jim Bishop

“The magic of autumn has seized the countryside; now that the sun isn't ripening anything it shines for the sake of the golden age; for the sake of Eden; to please the moon for all I know.” - Elizabeth Coastworth, Personal Geography: Almost an Autobiography    

“I ate breakfast in the kitchen by candle-light, and then drove the five miles to the station through the most glorious October colouring. The sun came up on the way, and the swamp maples and dogwood glowed crimson and orange and the stone walls and cornfields sparkled with hoar frost; the air was keen and clear and full of promise. I knew something was going to happen. ” - Jean Webster, Daddy-Long-Legs
 
 

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