Autumn's Arrival

            After a brief reprise, autumn clearly announced itself this morning with its hollowing winds and overcast skies.  Autumn is a wonderful season here (hunters aside, of course), but it is quite different than the falls I knew in Chicago.  I loved the reds and yellows of the changing maple trees and the quiet calm of the early morning as I left for work.  Bright blue skies would appear as the day unfolded and the leaves poetically floated down to the ground.  Idyllic, I know, but there were days like that, even if they were rare.  I recall the other fall days too; the cold rain, bare trees, and hard frosts.  Those days announced the arrival of winter, and even though I grumpily scraped the frost off my car and waited impatiently for the heat to kick in, I look back with nostalgia on those days too.

Living in the middle of a forested mountain range, I expected the foliage to rival Vermont with its waves of color on an endless flowing landscape.  I was wrong.  Some of the trees here, like chestnut and popular, do change color, but most do not.  They are only small yellow specs in a sea of green and brown.  Some trees, like the fig, simply drop their dried leaves, and many others, like the white oak, do not lose leaves until the spring.  I get glimpses of color, but it’s something I search for.

The wind is another issue.  It almost sounds comical coming from “The Windy City”, but the winds here are ferocious.  Fall is a very windy season, and it is not uncommon to have winds at 100-110 kilometers per hour for days on end; that is, day after day of wind at 65 miles per hour, just 10 below a level 1 hurricane.  The wind whips through the trees, creating a tremendous amount of noise which often ushers me quickly back inside.  Everything here grows or is constructed with the wind in mind; the trees bend at an angle and no window faces north.  I didn’t know this force until I moved here and still cringe when the weather announces strong winds.

But, like I said, autumn is a wonderful season.  It’s the season of gathering, of preparing, and of harvesting the rewards of hard work.   It’s about change, transition, and acceptance.  Autumn does have something amazing to offer.  It shows what nature can do; the changing colors, the violent winds, and the adaptability of all living things.  And for that, I am still in wonder of the season.