September 03, 2008

Welcoming Fall

Fall came to Minnesota overnight. For the past few weeks you could smell it occasionally -- that elusive fall smell. But the days heated up like they do in the summer, and you figured you imagined that crispness in the air.

I've never lived this far north before, and things are more dramatic. The seasons don't fade in and out the way they do in the south, spring bleeding into summer, summer stubbornly giving way to fall, holding on to the heat for as long as it can. But here it's marked. You just wake up one day and it's summer, the cool mornings a memory of yesterday. Or like today, we woke up and it's suddenly fall. The days didn't gradually get shorter, they just got shorter in a hurry. Leaves have already started falling and I can once again see the lake from our living room, shimmering beyond the trees. A patch of red has grabbed hold on one of our old big maples, and it's only a matter of time before they battle out the green.

I think about the pioneers a lot. What must they have thought when they woke up one August or early September morning to red trees and crisp air? Did they walk down to the lake for water or washing and shudder at the temperature change? That first year, did they know what was coming for them? The bitter, life-changing cold and the snow so thick and deep that you can't see tomorrow? Or was there joy in the harvest. Relief from the summer sun. Their descendants -- these modern day Minnesotans who are my neighbors, my coworkers, my family -- they love fall. The Vikings are back and the Gophers are playing and even though they're aware of what lurks in November, what will latch on for unending months, what will keep the sun set for most of the day, they welcome it.

So I welcome fall too. This summer wasn't long on the calendar, but it was long in my life. Fall is a fresh start, a turned corner, new adventures. My grandmother loved fall too. Maybe she was like those pioneers, happy to no longer have to work in the beating sun. Or maybe she was just always happy to send her brood away to school for most of the day. I know she would have loved the beauty of a Minnesota fall, so I love it for her. I see things for the both of us.

Aaron pulled his favorite argyle sweater out of a drawer this morning, which is what fall feels like to me this year. A favorite sweater, forgotten in a drawer, but that makes me feel like me.

Posted by hannah at 09:32 AM