And so here it comes..... Autumn!
As I've already mentioned before, it is my second favorite season. It's one of the many great things God has allowed me to see and to personally experience. I thought I will only get to see it in pictures and through the movies. I am very thankful I get to live with it (even for short periods of time only) and that I get to see the awesome colors of autumn.
Fall, as autumn is also "nicknamed," is a very mild season. The only way I can describe it for those who don't have the same opportunity as I do to experience it in person is that there is a certain "briskness" in the air --it's not too cold and not too warm. It's just perfectly right. It's like having an outdoor central air conditioning. With the crisp, cool air comes the changing of the colors of the foliage on trees and some shrubs. The primary colors of the season are of the deep, rich and bright kinds --from the hues of burgundy and reds, subtle golds and energetic yellows, bursting oranges, glowing purples and the deep mahogany and browns. It's so amazingly gorgeous! I can't get enough of it. Sadly, it's also one of the shortest seasons. Maybe this is the reason why it's so glorious and ever more so beautiful because we know that it's fleeting. One day we see the leaves turning red or yellow and then suddenly we see them on the ground just waiting to rot and to be covered by snow, sleet and ice for the next 4 to 5 months. Autumn is one fleeting beauty in its most magnificent. There is no other way I can put it.
With fall also comes a string of holidays and celebrations. To start off, some people in America (and the last time I checked in the news, even people from all over the world) "celebrate" halloween every last day of October. My family don't really consider it to be a part of the holidays since we don't celebrate halloween. For us, the "official" holiday celebrations begin in November for Thanksgiving. This is when there comes a series of small and large gatherings all throughout the holidays. Invitations are coming in from everywhere for people and families to get-together for parties, dinners, luncheons, afternoon teas, and even huge banquets, to celebrate the blessings of Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and the New Year.
I'm so happy that my "birthday month" also falls on this wonderful fall season. It's so heart-warming to celebrate my natal day amidst so much splendor and flourish happening all over nature. Fall makes people feel so festive and yet cozy at the same time. Of course I know this is not just for me alone but I'd still like to count it as a part of my personal blessings. This is also the time for apple-picking, farm tours, pumpkin patch and petting zoo for the kids, hay rides and garden strolls for the kids-at-heart. There are also various festivals going on everywhere, all we have to do is to check the calendar of events for every town and city and then make plans to join any time we can.
On a somber note, we all grow old. There comes a time when we arrive at the "autumn" of our lives. I'd like to consider this period as the more fulfilling, most profound and the blissful time of my life. It should be the time when I'm already deeply rooted in my faith and my foundation in God. It's when there's nothing else I crave in life so bad that I have to lose sleep over it. I'd like to think that my family and I will already be secure in our love and our future, and that my relationships and friendships wouldn't be the shallow, meaningless ones anymore. Fall is rich and deep, intimate and cozy, pretty but with substance. I hope that the "autumn" of my life will resemble even just a tinge of that.
"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." -Galatians 6:9
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| © Copyright, MMD Images, 2011 |
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| © Copyright, MMD Images, 2011 |
As I've already mentioned before, it is my second favorite season. It's one of the many great things God has allowed me to see and to personally experience. I thought I will only get to see it in pictures and through the movies. I am very thankful I get to live with it (even for short periods of time only) and that I get to see the awesome colors of autumn.
Fall, as autumn is also "nicknamed," is a very mild season. The only way I can describe it for those who don't have the same opportunity as I do to experience it in person is that there is a certain "briskness" in the air --it's not too cold and not too warm. It's just perfectly right. It's like having an outdoor central air conditioning. With the crisp, cool air comes the changing of the colors of the foliage on trees and some shrubs. The primary colors of the season are of the deep, rich and bright kinds --from the hues of burgundy and reds, subtle golds and energetic yellows, bursting oranges, glowing purples and the deep mahogany and browns. It's so amazingly gorgeous! I can't get enough of it. Sadly, it's also one of the shortest seasons. Maybe this is the reason why it's so glorious and ever more so beautiful because we know that it's fleeting. One day we see the leaves turning red or yellow and then suddenly we see them on the ground just waiting to rot and to be covered by snow, sleet and ice for the next 4 to 5 months. Autumn is one fleeting beauty in its most magnificent. There is no other way I can put it.
 |
| © Copyright, MMD Images, 2011 |
 |
| © Copyright, MMD Images, 2011 |
 |
| © Copyright, MMD Images, 2011 |
With fall also comes a string of holidays and celebrations. To start off, some people in America (and the last time I checked in the news, even people from all over the world) "celebrate" halloween every last day of October. My family don't really consider it to be a part of the holidays since we don't celebrate halloween. For us, the "official" holiday celebrations begin in November for Thanksgiving. This is when there comes a series of small and large gatherings all throughout the holidays. Invitations are coming in from everywhere for people and families to get-together for parties, dinners, luncheons, afternoon teas, and even huge banquets, to celebrate the blessings of Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and the New Year.
I'm so happy that my "birthday month" also falls on this wonderful fall season. It's so heart-warming to celebrate my natal day amidst so much splendor and flourish happening all over nature. Fall makes people feel so festive and yet cozy at the same time. Of course I know this is not just for me alone but I'd still like to count it as a part of my personal blessings. This is also the time for apple-picking, farm tours, pumpkin patch and petting zoo for the kids, hay rides and garden strolls for the kids-at-heart. There are also various festivals going on everywhere, all we have to do is to check the calendar of events for every town and city and then make plans to join any time we can.
 |
| © Copyright, MMD Images, 2011 |
On a somber note, we all grow old. There comes a time when we arrive at the "autumn" of our lives. I'd like to consider this period as the more fulfilling, most profound and the blissful time of my life. It should be the time when I'm already deeply rooted in my faith and my foundation in God. It's when there's nothing else I crave in life so bad that I have to lose sleep over it. I'd like to think that my family and I will already be secure in our love and our future, and that my relationships and friendships wouldn't be the shallow, meaningless ones anymore. Fall is rich and deep, intimate and cozy, pretty but with substance. I hope that the "autumn" of my life will resemble even just a tinge of that.
"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." -Galatians 6:9
This is a lovely post Mara. You say: 'there is a certain "briskness" in the air --it's not too cold and not too warm. It's just perfectly right.' That sums up the feeling I get too. The Fall, as Americans call it, is a transition period, between the hotter Summer and the colder Winter. It's like a period of our lives, when we perhaps wise-up a little, reflect that we are getting a little older, and learn to live more fully, perhaps in the knowledge that we didn't before. Acknowledging the changes in the year is also acknowledging God and His power over nature, and His mercy to let us enjoy every season, whatever it brings.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I don't celebrate Halloween myself, but each to their own I suppose! As Fall draws in, we should be grateful for all the good things God has blessed us with, not least the ability to appreciate each season as it is presented to us.
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So what do you call it in your country, Tim? Just autumn, or do you have another nickname for this season? As always, I appreciate your comments on here. Thanks for always visiting & reading. May God bless always!
ReplyDeleteHi Mara; we just call it Autumn, in England anyway. No doubt some of the Celtic people, in their Gaelic language, call it something else. I love reading your blog, and will continue to check it out!
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