Today I am grateful for the snap. Somewhere late in summer the air snaps autumn in the unexpected cool of an August night-- and I know. It is here. Fall has come like an elegant guest, slipping in the side door in a long cool dress. Saying nothing. Engaging no one. Self-contained and serene. But the whole room will shift at her presence. It is a distinct moment: getting out of my car in the dark, feeling the wind swirl up through the trees and over my face. Cool. It is cool. In all this heat and moisture, it is cool. Electricity sparks the air and my cells prickle in recognition. Somewhere my ancestors are looking up at a Scottish sky watching the dark edge of a cloud push rain over their fields. The long toil of summer is over. Now we will gather under the moon. Now we will celebrate. I don’t know why I react the way I do. I feel unearthly, super-natural. Seeing the branches of the pines dip and nod in silhouette, looking at the dark night. I sense the promise of chill, the cycle of the seasons. The day is long and still with heat but at night, the cool flows in gently like a tidal current and I feel empowered. For the next several weeks, Summer will bellow like an aging king. Blast the earth with 98 degrees and sweltering steam like a hot and angry Poseidon; the last gasp of a monarch undone and amuck with defiance. But at night, he falls back on his throne and surveys the ravaged land and wonders why he is so choleric and extreme. Everything must relax at some point…we can’t stay in anger forever. Fall has stepped gently into the room and everyone, everyone feels the relief. In time, Winter will ride down from the North and claim the land like a barbarian. He has ridden for months, as soon as Summer was conquered, to demand his inheritance, and Fall will bow gracefully out before we even realize she is gone. But for now I am grateful for the snap.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 15:04:02 +0000
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