Hmmm, does this new rendering of autumn have its own lesson to offer?
Autumn has lost some of its splendour and exuberance here in the last couple years now that sultry temperatures persist through September and even most October days are quite warm. The cooler temperatures that once were the impetus for the full kaleidoscope of fall colours do not arrive until November.
I have mixed feelings about this trend. I quite like the warm conditions that prevail longer into the reclining months of the year. But I do miss the unfurling cavalcade of colours in the leaves. However, there are some portraits of this new rendering of autumn that catch my fancy.
A carpet of golden and russet leaves crunching softly underfoot, as I trudge up the hill beneath the thinning canopy, marveling at the snaking, decades old roots that anchor the tree to the side of the slope.
The tint of harvest gold and candy apple red in the lush trees, undergoing the sea change of autumn and bending in supplication over the bay, reflected in dreamy Van Gogh post-impressionism in the silent water shimmering in the late season sun.
Subtle shades of green, veins of retiring yellow and the tattered edges of a solitary leaf that has by chance settled on a dirt path where it need not compete with others of its kind for attention from passersby.
Translucent drops and beads of life-sustaining water that cling in gravity-defying fashion to the backside of a host leaf in the layered blanket of many colours that carpets the ground.
A leisurely stroll with your soulmate along a sun-dappled woodland path encircled and embraced by the wind-rustled greenery and serenaded by the pensive whistles and quavering notes of a White-throated Sparrow.
I wrote in an earlier post that Autumn is a metaphor for the seasons our lives must roll through – joy and sorrow, abundance and scarcity, affluence and hardship. It is still so. However, the more sedate tones of this new rendering of autumn reminds us to pay more attention to something as simple as a single leaf and its qualities – and perhaps that is a blessing in itself.
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~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .
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