FALLing in Love Again


I had the best ride of my life yesterday afternoon, and this afternoon beckons with equal promise! The air is cool, but not cold, the wind is gentle and the fragrances of the season mix together, intoxicatingly beautiful.

I had forgotten just how powerful an impact this season has on me!

Having lived in the tropics for so long, I increasingly relied on ever-fading memory of just what it was like to go through Autumn. One thing that has come back to me quite powerfully is the quality of light at this time of year. It seems to me almost too bright - as if I've been suddenly awakened in the brightness of day, eyes squinting, trying to adjust. It's a stark kind of light that brings out the colors in everything especially clearly.

And the air has so many different perfumes! I remember the wood-burning stove smell, but the other smells of Fall have been a pleasant surprise. There are the smells of the leaves in all their variety, and then the scents of fall seasonings, the origin of which I can only guess at. A lot of it just makes me think of pumpkin patches, warm, mulled apple cider, and the confections of Thanksgiving!

This is a heady-feeling time of year for me. And riding to work yesterday, I realized that I was feeling a bit of the giddiness of new love. It actually feels like falling in love!! Maybe I am prone to feel this way at this time of the year? After all, I first fell in love in precisely this season, back in 1984, again in 1987, yet again in 1990, and ultimately, in 1992. This is MY season.

This is the season when things start to wither and die, or go to sleep for the winter months, but for me, it feels like an awakening. Instead of waning, life's energy is in new, and full bloom!

So, if you see a dude with a ridiculous skull-and-crossbones leather jacket, riding a big-ol' Harley -all the while grinning like a teenager who's just fallen in love for the first time, that will be me!!

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