Autumn

If you are lucky enough to live across the northern tier of states, you are in the midst of the greatest season of the four.  Autumn skies are clear and the deepest blue.  The air is crisp and scented with the smell of leaves.  The maple in my backyard has a golden yellow color that blends with the yellow brown of the pin oak next to it.  The burning bush at the corner is a deep red and the sumac are aflame.

At night, the stars seem brighter because the air is clear.  During the day, the sun tracks across the southern sky and colors seem brighter and not as washed out as the summer sun.

All of the beauty of autumn has one cause - death.  The leaves take on their colorful beauty because they are dying.  The sun is "dying" as it tracks lower in the sky.  The air is crisp as the earth cools.  The dying of summer is beautiful.

If nature can paint dying with so much beauty, how much more can our own dying be beautiful?  We die a little bit each day.  Old skin flakes off and reveals new skin underneath.  Aging saps us of our strength but that gives us more time to think, ponder and reflect.  Infirmities cause us to be less self-reliant and to rest on the arm of another.  These dyings can be beautiful if seen in the right light.

We are all heading for the final death of our bodies.  Each day brings us closer to that moment when we will pass from this life.  Our deaths may be violent, sudden, lingering, tomorrow, planned for or decades away.  However that moment comes, it will come.  I do believe that the moment will be beautiful.  The passage from this side of life to the other will be the beginning of a new experience of life.  That moment will be wonderful.

The season of autumn needs campfires, cider, plain cake donuts, a nice warm sweater and a good rake.  Enjoy.