The Beauty of Autumn

So...fall, and almost winter, is upon us.  I love this time of year, as so many of you have also said.  I always think of the movie You've Got Mail, when Tom Hanks' character says "Don't you just love New York in the Fall?  It makes me wanna buy school supplies."  Then he talks about bouquets of sharpened pencils... Anyone remember that?  Anyway, I totally get what he is saying.  There is something about a chill in the air, leaves falling to the ground, getting out your sweaters, settling into a new school year, sharpened yellow number two pencils, and the color orange.  Orange leaves, orange pumpkins, orange fire...For me, fall is refreshing.  It is in some ways an awakening after the lazy days of summer, and in some ways a settling in, and still in some ways it represents the anxiousness of change.  

Each year we get ready for the coming winter.  We prepare our yards, we pull out our warm things, we drag out recipes that require hours of simmering, and we start to make plans for winter sports and holidays.  And of course in the winter, we all talk about the symbolism of old things dying away, and in the spring, awaking and arising anew.  I guess, what I am thinking about tonight is how most of us have passed our childhoods, and even our young adult lives (summer), and are in the thick of fall.  I think of autumn as representing a time for preparation...a time to harvest.  What are you harvesting?  What are you letting go of - putting away?  What are you preparing in your hearts and lives?  

Well, on a lighter note, I found this poem.  My Sam thought it was pretty funny...Oh the life of a pumpkin! 

A Naughty Pumpkin's Fate

Author unknown

A queer little pumpkin, a jolly fat fellow, Stood close to his mother so rotund and yellow. "What a stupid old place! how I long to aspire," Cried he, "I was destined for something much higher." "My son," said the mother, "pray do be content, There's great satisfaction in life that's well spent!" But he shrugged up his shoulders, this pumpkin, it is true, And acted just like some bad children will do. With a shout and a whoop, in the garden they ran, Tom and Ned, for they'd thought of the loveliest plan To astonish their friends from the city, you see, With a fine Jack-o'-lantern--"Ah, this one suits me!" Neddie seized the bad pumpkin, and dug out his brains, Till he felt so light-headed and brimful of pains; Then two eyes, a long nose, and a mouth big and wide, They cut in a minute, and laid him aside Until night, when they hung him upon a stout limb, With a candle inside; how his poor head did swim, As they twisted him this way, then twirled him round that, Till at last, with a crash, he fell on the ground flat, A wreck of the once jolly, fat little fellow, Who stood by his mother so rotund and yellow. Just then a lean cow, who was passing that way, Ate him up, just to finish HER "Thanksgiving Day." If you haven't carved your pumpkins yet, or had that first cup of hot apple cider...get ready for the pleasures of fall, and we can pretend together that winter is really several months away, instead of several days.  However, when winter arrives I will enjoy the beauties of each snowflake too, and revel in the twinkling lights and glow of winter...