"Another fall, another turned page …” — Wallace StegnerI was pondering, this morning, just why Autumn really does feel like an ending. Why, to me at least, it always feels like more of a page turning than the actual end of the year does, which is still more than three months away. And I think I’m at least beginning to understand why.First, the obvious, Autumn of course marks the end of summer and the beginning of the new school year. The experiences of youth etch us deeply. Deep enough to have forever set Autumn in my heart as a turning of the page. I’ll always remember the quote from the movie You’ve Got Mail,“Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.”Second, and just as obvious, the trees. Anyone who knows me knows that trees are pretty much my favorite people. I look to them. I learn from them. I trust their wisdom. So when the trees begin to yawn and change into their comfy Autumn plaid pajamas I trust that the day is winding to a close. And that was my real revelation this morning. Looking at that phrase I’d just written, “…the day is winding to a close.”If I think of the entire year as one complete day then feeling an ending in Autumn makes sense. Spring is the brightness of morning. Summer is the heat of doing. Winter is night. And the new year is born in the middle of Winter just as a new day is born in the middle of the night. And just like the new day begins hours before the sun rises, the new year begins hours before Winter gives way to Spring. Spring is sunrise.Then what of Autumn? If spring is sunrise then Autumn is sunset. Sunset is not technically the end of the day but it’s how we experience the end of the day. The work is over and we’ve come home. Our clothes have changed from what everyone else expects to see to what we want to feel. Hard soled shoes are replaced with slippers and socks and blankets. Lights glow. Fires glow. The smell of dinner cooking. The harvest of the day has been brought in from the fields of our labors and it’s time to enjoy what we’ve gathered with a warm meal, time together, and even perhaps some time for ourselves before bed. This is not some technical transition that happens at midnight when most of us are sound asleep. This is the real end of the day. Turn the page.Autumn is the sunset of the year. Not the end of the year, but yes, the end of the year. And we all know that sunset, like sunrise, is the most magical time of the day. The ancient Celts called it the Gloaming—a time when the veil between day and night thins, as does the veil between this world and the next. It’s those moments when the dimming sky is a swirl of deep red and pale blue and gold, and shadows grow long, and every object between you and the disappearing light is a crisp black silhouette.Autumn, like sunset, is big magic. It stirs us deeply. It’s a time to take stock of what we accomplished, what we didn’t, how much farther we have to go, and then to accept that there’s nothing more to be done about it right now, lay it aside, shift gears, and rest.I hope you pause long enough to breathe in the magic of Autumn. The end of the day. The sunset of the year. The magic of the Gloaming. I hope for you many quiet thoughtful moments, many peaceful doses of memory and melancholy and nostalgia. And I hope for you, rest. But most of all I just hope you don’t miss it. Sunsets are so beautiful, and they go so quickly. And before you know it this day will end, a new sun will rise, and it will be time again to get busy building yourself a beautiful life.
