Change In The Air

I love fall.  By far, it is my favorite season.  It has always been my favorite season.

I love the colors of the trees.  The rusts.  The yellows.  The reds.  When one walks in the woods, there is that familiar sound, the crunch of leaves underfoot.  I don’t get to walk in the woods as much as I did as a kid . . . as much as I did when I was younger.

I love the Change In The Air.

There is a coolness, a crispness to the air.  Nature plays games with us because daytime can be hot and humid, but then evening slips in and carries with it a chill, a coolness.  A walk outside might turn a nose or a cheek to apple red.  A time for sweaters and sweatshirts.  Jeans and a jacket.  I had a favorite bright red sweater I wore as a kid.  Still see myself running around in the backyard with my brothers in my jeans with the cuffs rolled up.  Our cheeks and nose red from the chill.

I love the Change In The Air.

Cherry and apple pies.  Warm apple cider with cinnamon.  The smell of cookouts replaced by the smell of a wood fireplace. 

Happens every year.  Every year.  Every one of my fifty-nine years. 

The thing about change is that it happens.

It happens every year.  Over and over.  Time and again.

Nothing we can do to stop it.  Nothing we can do to prevent it from happening.  It is as natural and as normal as can be.

I’ve written about growing up next to a river.  That river has taught me a lot.  Sometimes I think that river . . . nature . . . has been my best teacher.  One of the things I’ve learned is that if you dip your fingertips into the river, even keeping your fingertips in the water, even for a long time, you never touch the same water again.  You never touch the same drops more than once. 

You see, water passes.  It moves on.  It never stays in one place.  The river is governed by the current and the current is the river’s master.  The current is always moving. 

Your fingertips might not move.  You can keep them as still as can be. 

But no matter. 

The river passes.  It moves on.  We move on.  We might not like it.  We can try to stop it.  We can fight it.  But the river, as does time, passes by.  It is a given in nature . . . our one great teacher.  Time, like the river, passes by.  It moves on.  And we move on.  We might try to snatch it out of the air.  We might try to grasp it.  We might try to hold onto it.  All in vain.  All in vain.

So we can fight it . . . or embrace it.  We can resist it . . . or accept it.  We can enjoy the colors, the cool, the crisp air . . . or dread it.  Fret about it.  Worry about it.  It won’t matter, because Change will occur whether or not we want it to.  Something to think about . . .

Live Your Life, and Make A Difference!