The case for Autumn

Autumn is the best season and I'll tell you why.  There is a mystery about it.  Something in the air, the same ingredient that makes it all fresh and crisp, makes it heavy with anticipation.  It's like the feeling before the gun goes off in a race.  You've done all this preparation and now is the time for action and you're not certain of the outcome.  All you know is you want something good to come out of it. 

I feel like October should be more of a new year than January.  January is smack in the middle of winter. It's boring.  And I know Spring is all about new beginnings and a bright new world, so you might think that Springtime would be the better candidate for the new year celebration, but you'd be wrong.  The problem with Spring is that it's like a baby.  Babies come out all pink and puffy but then what do they do?  Cry and poop.  It takes them a while to get going.  That's why Autumn is the best.  Summer is lazy.  It's relaxing.  But with Autumn you're just getting revved up.  You're buying school supplies.  Bouquets of freshly sharpened pencils!  The holidays are coming!  Halloween!  Thanksgiving!  Hanukkah!  Christmas! 

To me, the best parts of this season are squashes and pies, getting the jackets and scarves out of storage, waiting for the tree across the street from my parents' house to burst into red and orange leaf flames.  People start building fires in their fireplaces and the smell permeates the entire neighborhood.  Unless you live in LA and then the most you can hope for is that crisp air to come around.  I feel it today.  I love Autumn!

Autumn Movement

I cried over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.

The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper
sunburned woman, the mother of the year, the taker of seeds.

The northwest wind comes and the yellow is torn full of holes,
new beautiful things come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind,
and the old things go, not one lasts.

-Carl Sandburg