All the Gold in the Sunset

" Spring Forward, Fall Back " as the clocks say every year, but I feel something different about this year, something that has been at the edge of my mind the whole time.  It would have to be the geography of place and the science of time that does it for me, the whole "here and now" thing.  Here is in New Jersey, and the Now of it is autumn.  

Fall is a truly beautiful time of year, and I have been blessed to be able to experience this year's in New Jersey.  The change was appropriate, and yet abrupt,  from the end of one season and the beginning of another.  Summer was a challenging time for me, and this change brought the promise of something new, a slowing of time,  and a shift in the planet's relation to the sun.  

One of my friends was recently confused about the nature of the clocks during this time, whether the adage was "fall forward, spring back", or "spring forward, fall back."   I cleared this up fairly quickly with the man, and further on, we talked of the nature of falling forward or falling back.  "Who wants to fall forward?  They'd get their nose all scraped up and stuff. "  "Exactly, " I said.  "Why would anyone not want to fall back, all the padding's in the back.  It's safer."  

"I'd definitely want to spring forward, not back." my friend said.   "Yes." I said, " Springing backwards would be unnatural and difficult. "  And on and on we spoke.  

So, it began in my thoughts about the various applications of this cliche in my life. Fall back.  Spring forward.    It feels so nice, the nature of it and the timing of it in my life.  Fall for me can be a time of falling back, into a slight slowing of time, of a delicate time, a comfortable time.  Like a golden falling feather of a leaf, Fall is delicate and beautiful, a simple delicacy of a meal enjoyed.  A season to fall back into, a time and place to savor the last remaining days and months of the year, and to remember crystallized memories of the sweet summer.   

 

Nature's first green is gold

Her hardest hue to hold

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

--Robert Frost.