Last weekend we went to Damascus, Virginia with Kelley and dear friends to ride the Virginia Creeper. It’s the perfect bike ride for me because it’s almost all downhill, and it was the perfect time of year — fall. The leaves were turning and the three hour path took us by a stream almost the whole way and the path was covered by a canopy of brown, red, and yellow leaves. I had the time of my life.
Autumn has always been a favorite time of mine. Maybe that is because it is football season and the cooler temperatures made long practices bearable. Others describe Fall as a space between beauty and bleakness, yet lovely in its own way? Colette celebrated it as a beginning rather than a decline.
Maybe it is my favorite because between its falling leaves and fading light, it is not a movement toward gain or loss but an invitation to stillness and presence. It reminds us to cherish the beauty of life not despite its perishability but because of it; because the impermanence of things — of leaves, seasons and lifetimes and galaxies and loves — is what confers preciousness and sweetness upon them.
Webb,
Your thought captures my sense and
feeling. I am enjoying a Red Bellied Woodpecker feeding in our lake front yard
Thank you Ashley. How wonderful. Webb.