Saturday, we welcome in fall. I am ready.
In August, I was far from ready and cringed at the thought of saying goodbye to my carefree summer. But here, on September 20th, as I stand on this threshold straddled between 2 different seasons, I feel ready to take the leap into fall and see what it has to offer. Let’s get on with it already–I say, forward ho!
Please don’t mistake this readiness for excitement that I am actually looking forward to the long, cold winter months that will be fast on fall’s heels. I am not. But I must say that, by the time Thanksgiving rolls around, and Christmas is in the air … there will be a piece of me that is ready to be nice and cozy inside, while the wind and cold and snow swirl around outside.
Unlike the transition from summer to fall, where I tend to drag my feet a little, it won’t take long once submersed in those dark, cold winter months for my over-anxious self to want to leap right over the winter-spring threshold into the arms of April.
I liken the change of seasons as similar to the changes in our lives. Sometimes we are ready for it, other times we aren’t, and go kicking and screaming into the next season.
Some of us are more open to the change, while others are downright shut off from it.
There are those who would be happy to never move out of the comfort of knowing where they are today in their life–even though they know they should and want to make a change. They just teeter on the edge, never making the push and taking the final breath to get over the hump and just do it. It’s very paralyzing.
As a person who embraces change, I think I am often perceived as loving it, even thriving in it. Please don’t mistake my positivity for love. My attitude makes it easy for others to overlook that there is a deep-seated fear, hidden way down in the depths of my body.
Even the most fearless of us change-loving souls have doubts. We, too, have moments where we want to go running back to all that we know and have been accustomed to. We don’t want to put our heads down and grind it out anymore than anyone else does. The summer sun is much more appealing than the gray skies of November.
What makes us do it, you ask?
Well, for me, change has yet to let me down. It has always been positive. The road to it may not end up being as direct as I had hoped it to be. But one path always leads to another …
Like a February thaw and a daffodil that pops up a little early, I am reminded that we are always in a state of change, and how you embrace it makes all the difference.
So, I hang on to August sunshine; I get a little misty as my emotions play the ups and downs of a roller coaster as I think about putting my flowers to bed for the year and bringing my porch furniture in … but still deep within, I know it’s time.
Time to bring out the turtlenecks and the pumpkin spice, time to think about finding the totes of boots and hats and mittens to prepare for the long winter months ahead. Change is going to happen.
Walking out the door is the hardest, stepping in full-heartedly is even harder … but then it gets easier … and you say to yourself, “Wow, how could I have ever considered NOT making this change into the next season? How could I live and not have this ebb and flow?” This leap into fall, and then into winter, and spring, and back to summer … it’s just so beautiful! Just like every change, it’s a transformation on the outside and in, beautiful, if you choose to see it that way.
And, just when I have had enough, a daffodil pops up along the foundation to brighten my outlook.
Cheers to the Equinox, cheers to sunny skies, and looming clouds, and the rainbow that awaits at the end. Thank you, summer, for a wonderful season, I will see you in the memory books at Christmas time.
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