It's the time of year again.

Fall In The Air



As the days become shorter and temperatures gradually start their downward trend, we are reminded that fall is on the way. No doubt the leaves will start turning in the next few days. There were hints of this last week when with the air conditioning off and the windows open at night, it was cool enough to use a blanket.

This is such a fun time of year. The fair will soon be back in town to kick off the calendar of events that mark fall. Football season has started with high school games on Friday night, college on Saturday and the pros on Sunday. The Atlanta Braves are making their case for another possible trip to a world series. In addition to all of these, the arts and crafts shows will soon number to many to mention.

What is it about this time of year that excites so many? Well, we have 2 major holidays within a two month period and Halloween prefaces them both. These traditional family times are a big part of this magic.

The leaves will start turning anytime now, which also has quite an effect on us. A friend of mine, Joe Carriker, used to tell me each fall that he thinks of the changing leaves as coming from God's paintbrush at work. I like this way of looking at it.

Several years ago when on a trip to Sky Valley with co-workers from the Upson Counseling Center, I drove through the North Georgia Mountains to Rossville to spend a weekend with some friends. The leaves were at their peak and I remember the highway being covered with the most beautiful multi-colored leaves that I have ever seen. Driving through that beauty, all I missed was someone to share that thrill with.

Fall is such a time of natural highs. Even though there is less sunlight with the days being shorter, our endorphins are quite active. The cold weather that follows this time, I've even learned to love. There is something so inviting about a nippy winter day. The smell of oak buring in the fireplace, a warm flannel shirt, jeans and a leather jacket and that cup of coffee just sort of go together.

There is beauty in all times of the year, but somehow fall and winter seems so special. So let the leaves change, the weather become cold, bring on the fair, Thanksgiving and Christmas. See if these things that are so special don't make you love those that are close to us a little more. This is real therapy but it comes without a price tag. There is a poem by Bliss Carman called "A Vagabond Song" that sums it up best:

There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood-
Touch of manner, hint of mood;
And my heart is like a rhyme,
With the yellow and purple and the crimson keeping time.

The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry
of beegles going by.
And my lonely spirit thrills
To see the frosty, asters like a smoke upon the hills.

There is something in October sets the gipsy blood astir;
We must rise and follow her,
When from every hill of flame
She calls and calls each vagabond by name.