The Seasons; They Are A-Changing....

I can feel it in the air.  Summer and all that it entails is on the way out, and autumn is about to segue into  the city.

A few weeks ago, I was in Paris with friends and relatives enjoying the last throes of summertime in the city of light.  We visited shops, restaurants, cafes, parks and museums jacket-free and foot-sandled. We took an evening Seine River cruise watching the twinkling Eiffel Tower and the brilliant sunset that accompanied it.   And then...BAM! The last two days of rain and wind came upon us, indicating that even the French are facing the same seasonal changes we were anticipating.

On our return, I could feel the change approaching. The days are getting shorter. The sun's light has a different slant and feel and reflection.  The moon is rising higher and the night sky is changing...different stars and constellations are making their return to the soon to be winter sky. Orion, Ursa Major and Minor, and Cassiopeia are making their annual appearance in the night skies along with the planets Mars, Venus and Jupiter. These twinkling lights make stargazing this time of year a joy, and I often spend evenings just watching the eastern sky as they move across it.

It is always sad when summer leaves the scene. Back in time when I was a student, it meant a return to the classroom and more studying, returning from our summers in the countryside, returning to our urban neighborhood in New York City and getting back into the normal routine. That pattern continued as I taught school: for me the year ended in August and began in September.

But nowadays, as the leaves start to turn orange, red and gold, I think of times past, and the years that have seemed to fly by me. How life is changing all the time, as fast as the summer leaves turn to flame and, once brown and withered, fall to the ground.

This time of year seems to bring out the melancholy that rests easy in my spring and summer soul.  I often think about Marcel Proust and his lengthy literary work "Remembrance of Things Past" ( in French "A la recherché des temps perdu"). This is considered to be one of the defining novels of the twentieth century known for its theme of involuntary memory. These moments of being drawn into a moment of memory triggered by a sound, a sight, a smell or even a sensation often happen this time of year. The sound of the rake scrapping up the fallen leaves; the sight of autumnal colored branches swaying on a blustery day; the smell of apples baking in a cake or pie; the sensation of the autumn wind blowing against your face and messing your hair: these triggers can cause those involuntary memories to rise up and capture you unawares.

And...this is not a bad thing. Some melancholy can be good for the soul as long as we don't sit in it for too long. Luckily for us, winter is never far behind the fall. The season filled with festivities that brings with it the anticipation of things soon to be...new life and hope  And hope does spring eternal.
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One of my favorites:

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