Well darlings, here I sit, on my back porch, bundled in my favorite alpaca wrap, enjoying the crisp Autumn air, loving this change of seasons!

And sneezing. I’m not enjoying that very much, but as I long ago learned, if I am to be in Pennsylvania, I must embrace the sneeze. I don’t know what it is about this area, what grows here, and, I suppose, dies here, but it gives me gross, and I use that word with all its meanings in gear, amounts of sinal agita.

And it is not just seasonal allergies that afflict this gal. No, I have year ’round indoor-outdoor allergy issues, which get more intense during the Fall and Spring seasons. Ironic then, perhaps, that of all, well, four, of the seasons, Spring and Fall are my very favorites. Fall, especially.

Why, you ask? What is it, Jane, that makes Fall so delightful to you?

Very astute questions, and ones which I shall now answer.

I’m one who tends toward the hot side of the spectrum. I mean this, of course, with regard to my internal temperature, and not my external appearance, that is a decision I shall leave to your exquisite discretion.

So Fall, with its knife-edge chill, fits me like a glove. I’m fond, also, of the other sensory delights delivered by this season of winding down. The smell of the dying leaves, decaying back to the soil; the smoky wisps of fireplace wafting through the air; the glow of lights, now cheering up the early-darkened sky pre-Halloween through post-New Year.

And the philosophical joys: That aforementioned winding down, as we close up the vibrant season of growth and enter the season of rest. This season of rest, I think, is a season of potential; rest is renewal, and renewal is active.

The seasons, to me, are like this: Summer is the bow being drawn across the violin’s strings. Fall is the bow’s release from the string; a lifting, an active release. Winter is that breath at the top of the arc; the pause in mid-air. And Spring, the bow’s dive down onto the string; sometimes gentle, sometimes violent; but always the starting point of the sound.

But now, my nose is running (and I must go catch it…hahahaha), so until next time: Smell the air, enjoy the chill, and glow with the lights.

Love, Jane