“Autumn’s the mellow time.”

– William Allingham.

There is change in the air.  I can see it in the sky.  The heat of summer that baked us with sunshine and sent us scurrying for a spot of shade and a cool drink has given over to the crisp, cool days of early Fall.  The clouds know it.  They run and fly across the sky.  Perhaps, like the birds, they too have dreams of warmer lands.  For my part, I simply watch them fly — clouds and birds that have been my summer companions; and now they leave me earthbound and feeling wistful as I realize that we have entered the season of goodbyes.

There is a change in me.  I can feel it as I exchange my shorts for some old, familiar jeans and once again enjoy the softness of a long-sleeved shirt that has spent the summer tucked away in an unused drawer of my dresser.  The energy of Fall draws me out in the middle of the day to rake the first leaves and feel the caress of the breeze at a time that only weeks ago was uncomfortably warm.  I dance through the leaves and savor the first aromas of Fall — the pungent mold of fallen vegetation, and the sweet scent of fallen apples that lie beneath the tree.   I collect the last fruits of my summertime garden and think of the sweetness of fruit on the vine that has fed us for months, both in body and soul.  I take them all in — the remnants of summer — and do my best to commit to memory each fast-flying moment that, swept by the wind, joins the clouds and the birds and is gone.

There is joy in the dance that we dance in the Fall.  In the midst of goodbyes lies the sweetness of memories; of days that seemed timeless and carefree and bright.  For a moment I hesitate, wondering whether I might will my spirit to rein in its dancing and somehow delay the inevitable day when the last leaf will fall and the earth will lie frozen and silent again.  But then the breeze blows, and it sends the leaves dancing.  They brush past my feet, and my dancing resumes.  As we spin and we twirl, we send memories flying.  We kiss them goodbye as they sail with the clouds and are gone.