URNotAlone

The Rose of Summer, The Silver of Autumn...

August 30th, 2007 1:26 pm MDT

I feel this way every Fall.

The Pacific NW summer is a smell of cut grass, warming cedar trees, suddenly colorful birds appear. Seemingly endless months of low steel skies and drizzle are forgotten, the San Juan Islands stand blue and clear from the sea.

Then another day comes. Suddenly there is a sharp marine scent in the air, a light fog on a clear morning, a crisp feel on your face. The change from cedar to pine, birds fall quiet with the exception of nesting crows. All the songs left to somewhere that still has flowers, replaced by western winds and irises falling dormant.

These changes for me are a reminder, an allegory to the changes in life. That all of us will have a late summer that we one day will realize has drifted into the fall. And so easy to float into a feeling of melancholy over once good things, loss and missed opportunities.

With the coming of the Washington fall there is also so much beauty. All of the summer comes pouring out of the trees in ferrari red and lotus yellow, a long low sun touches the fog into translucent gold. Even the stars and moon, with the cooler clearer air, are not to be out-dressed and turn the nights into shadows of black and silver.

So maybe it is with me, now 47, that I want to show my red leaves, bring out all of the things in me long retained before the coming of slashing rains.

My critical self realizes that these feelings and ideas are hardly a philosophical revelation. That it is silly, corny and self-indulgent to fall into this emotion. But I can't help myself from feeling that the scent of l'heure bleue on my skin is more intense, more meaningful in these days.

So in this spirit, I want to thank you all so much for your ever kind comments; they mean a lot to me. May every one of you flourish, and be beautiful in whatever season you may be.

Ayez une longue boisson du beau vin rouge sur moi!

Flore