WHEN AUTUMN ARRIVES
Fall is here. I
can smell it.
The air of each season has a certain feel, a certain smell, that defines it. For a long time, I thought this was just a subconscious thing. We know the date and thus the moment you get a cool day at the end of August, you start thinking about fall.
But a few years
ago I decided it has to be more than that. There must be some internal
mechanism, an interpretation of the data the senses are gathering, that lets a
person know change is in the air. Just like you can sense when a storm is
coming even if the sky is clear.
It happens all
the time. You go outside on a beautiful summer day, maybe to check the garden
or walk the dog. Fall, Halloween, the end of summer, none of that is on your
mind. Yet the moment you step outside, a cool breeze greets you and you
instantly think, "Autumn is here." There’s no reason to actually feel
this way. The day is warm; that slight chill in the air is just a stray
current, same as when you’re in a pool or the ocean and encounter a chilly
area. Everything around you screams summer. Lush, green trees, flowers visited
by buzzing insects, lawns being mowed.
But in that
moment it feels like fall and if you close your eyes you can imagine it’s an unusually
warm day in October rather than a summer afternoon.
Then you notice
it. A different kind of smell in the air, a harsher rustling to the leaves,
both so different than just a week or two ago. Logically, you know nothing has
changed, at least on the surface. The leaves are still green, the grass hasn’t
died, the temperature hasn’t dropped. And yet, nothing is the same.
As an
ex-scientist, I know the possibility exists that things ARE different and my senses
are picking that up. The angle of the sun, the direction of the wind, the
concentration of ozone, a single wildflower species blooming in the woods, a shift
in the wind patterns that brings in air from Canada. Miniscule changes that
would never register individually on the conscious brain, but when compiled
they trigger something deep inside, in that part of us that works at the
instinctual level. The same way you can enter a lightless room and somehow know
someone else is there even though you can't see, hear, or smell them.
When this happens
for me, I experience a powerful melancholy. I love summer, and I hate to see it
end. At the same time, I enjoy fall almost as much. On that first day (for me)
of fall, I’ll pause and breathe deep, my eyes closed, the sun warming my face.
I’ll embrace the change and my sadness will disappear, replaced by
anticipation. Soon the days will be cooler and we'll have the windows open and
the air conditioning off. Weekends will be filled with trips to the local farm
markets to pick apples and pumpkins, eat cider donuts, and maybe get some late
harvest grapes for a grape pie. There will be Halloween decorations to put up,
and in a few weeks the cable stations will start showing classic horror films.
Now is the time
to experience it yourself. Go outside. Close your eyes. Breathe in the
changing of the seasons.
Give yourself to autumn.
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Stay tuned for tomorrow's creepy entry and be sure to check out everyone else on the blog hop!
As always, be sure to check out A.F. Stewart's October Frights blog page, https://afstewart.ca/october-frights-blog-hop-participants/, for the links to all the different bloggers and the latest about the blog hop and all things horror. While there, be sure to visit the Book Showcase Page (https://afstewart.ca/october-frights-book-fair/) where all the participants have made their terrifying books available for purchase (most are on sale, including my novel CARNIVAL OF FEAR, which is only 99cents for Kindle!). And don't forget about the free book giveaway page: https://storyoriginapp.com/to/oyHMogF.
A wonderful post.
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