October 21, 2005

On the edge of winter

fall-leaves.jpg

This is a very hard time of year. My dock came in last weekend. A very sad day. No more swimming; no more boat rides. The garden is closing down. Now the leaves are turning. It is beautiful yet haunting. I can feel the ghosts from the past in the air. And the possibilities of the extremes of winter are becoming evident everywhere. The sun was strong today, the wind chilling. The sun is late getting out of bed in the mornings. It is dark way beyond the time I expect. It just doesn�t seem right.

I feel like a squirrel getting ready for winter without enough nuts in my nest; I feel the edge of anxieties as I scurry around looking for ways to secure myself before the snows descend. And with so many natural and unnatural disasters in the world, it is hard to trust the sun to rise and the nest to be full.

Maybe this is what Halloween is really about. The ghosts that need to be welcomed and sent on their way. The real beginning of winter. Turning inward, lighting the hearth, warming the home.

Posted by leya at October 21, 2005 11:28 AM
Comments

I had to scrape frost off my car window this morning. I hate that first morning of scraping...it's been so warm here and now winter is just suddenly barreling down on us. I loved the slow departure of summer, but once again there was no fall...it seems like this will always be a two season part of the world.

Posted by: Rachel at October 21, 2005 11:41 AM

We rarely have spring here but autumn is usually magnificent. But it is still hard knowing that winter is close.

Posted by: Leya at October 21, 2005 04:40 PM

Luckily, here in the New Orleans area it is still warm enough that the trees almost stripped of leaves by the 165mph+ winds have been able to put out new little leaves. My live oak tree, which looked pretty bad at first, should look pretty good next summer, especially since I plan to have my tree man fertilize it. And small trees which are almost completely cut back have new growth. It's encouraging.

Posted by: sue at October 21, 2005 05:16 PM