Change of Season (Week 1)

[dmsj]

Prompt: Open Topic

The air is beginning to feel crisp and cool. As I walked earlier, I smelled woodsmoke. The leaves haven't started changing yet, but I can feel it coming. I can feel the wheel turning. I can feel autumn's grasp starting to take hold.

September and October used to be my hardest months, due to some significant Life Things that had happened during those months. Now, they're my favorite. They're still hard, in ways. I still face the possibility of no one celebrating my birthday. I face the loneliness that the coming winter is going to bring. And there will always be memories of loss and hard times, as the days will start to grow shorter and shorter. And yet... I see the beauty in the in-between. Fall and spring have become my favorite seasons. I joke regularly that my perfect world design would included *only* the in-betweens, and neither of the extremes.

What changed? Honestly, it was living where there *was* no autumn, for so many years. In SW Florida, the leaves don't change. Even in northern FL, they don't have vivid color changes. Just green to brownish, then they fall. And I missed it, more than I expected. So now, I don't take it for granted. I have learned to embrace this season. It feels symbolic. Like the world is preparing for ... something. Like I, too, should be preparing for something.

What changes will this autumn bring?

Comments

[gardeningatnight]

Fall used to be my favorite, and I live where it is GLORIOUS.

But as I've gotten older, I favor spring a little more.

[dmsj]

Yeah, it's lovely around here too. One of my favorite things about moving back to the northeast.

[humanbeansradio]

I have begun loving autumn. I used to be a summer baby... but now I am experiencing autumn existentially and it sort of makes it a bit more... real and right. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on it. Makes me go all waxing philosophical... :)

[dmsj]

I welcome philosophical waxing! :)

Thank you for your commennt.

[bsgsix]

Oh, do I get this. You said something I would say - "I see the beauty in the in-between." So I very much agree, whether it's about seasons or change in general.

That sense of preparing for something is really haunting - I feel that. What changes indeed?

I'm on the East Coast, where the seasons are so vivid with change. I've come to favor that period right between spring and summer most, as well as fall and winter - those in-betweens are, somehow, my favorite.

This is very reflective for certain. <3

[dmsj]

Oh thank you! I am also in the NE part of the US, so yes, it's a beautiful time of year here. :)

[adoptedwriter]

I enjoy fall while the weather is still warm enough but the leaves are more colorful as well.

[dmsj]

I like the cool crispness, as well as the warmer days. The crispness, especially in the evening, makes me think of Fall Marching Band, so many many years ago.

[halfshellvenus]

I love Fall, though I also miss it. I live in Sacramento, where things just seasonally die and that's how you know it's Fall. But I remember growing up in Oregon, where the air gets crisp and skies are blue and colored leaves are everywhere. With an October birthday and a love for Halloween, it was always a special time of year to me.

[dmsj]

I am also an October baby! :)

[pixiebelle]

I can relate to this. I love autumn now that I live somewhere with a real autumn (I moved from Southern California) but winter often leaves me down. But autumn is lovely.

[dmsj]

Yeah, I am no winter fan. I did not miss that, in the slightest, when I was in FL.

[simplyn2deep]

I really loved the idea of autumn as an “in-between,” especially because your relationship with the season has changed so much over time. There’s something poignant about September and October still carrying difficult memories and the possibility of loneliness, while also becoming months you can genuinely appreciate. It doesn’t sound like the difficult associations disappeared—you just made room for beauty alongside them.

And I completely understand missing the actual change of seasons after living somewhere that doesn’t really have it. Sometimes you don’t realize how much those little signals, the crisp air, woodsmoke, changing leaves, matter until they’re gone. I especially liked the idea that autumn feels like the world preparing for something, and maybe you should be preparing too. There’s something hopeful in that final question: not necessarily knowing what’s coming, but being open to finding out. ❤️

[dmsj]

I had one fall visit up here while I was still living down there, and it was 70 degrees most of the time I was here. I was so disappointed.

[penpusher]

There is something magical about being in a place that has 4 proper and distinctly different seasons and it certainly makes all of us feel differently about life... and it makes the same place a very different place with nothing more than temperature, humidity, precipitation, clouds and sun. Nicely captured!

[dmsj]

Thank you so much!

[poppetawoppet]

The only time I lived south ish I don’t remember, I can’t imagine not having four seasons!!

[dmsj]

It's a huge paradigm shift.

[ofearthandstars]

I love living in the in-betweens, but mostly autumn, because spring = worse pollen for me. I think the changing of the seasons, and weather patterns in general, is helpful for reminding me about the transient nature of problems, emotions, joys and sorrows, and allowing me to embrace them more fully when they are present. ♥

[dmsj]

Ooooh, that's a beautiful metaphor. Thank you for sharing that.

[niquildrvr]

This is my favorite time of year with spring running a distant second (I love to see the new growth and blooms, but the pollen wreaks havoc on my sinuses!). I hope that autumn brings you great joy!

[dmsj]

Unfortunately fall is just as bad for me, allergy-wise. Ragweed and I are not friends.

[bleodswean]

Ooooh, a lovely autumnal equinox musing! Yes, living where the seasons don't noticeably change makes it difficult to feel them change inside!

[dmsj]

There are few things more surreal than Christmas shopping in 90 degree weather.

[banana_galaxy]

It's interesting discovering what we miss when we end up living without it for some time, isn't it? Given my current transitional period, I can relate.

[dmsj]

Thank you! It’s always nice when people understand. :)