“Autumn...the year's last, loveliest smile." [Indian Summer]” ― John Howard Bryant
It is fall here in Georgia and I love it so. Fall is my favorite season of the year. I love the cool nights, the exodus/death of those dratted pests, the mosquitoes, the whispering breeze through the trees and the memories the season brings to me.
It was fall when I was truly fall-ing in love with the guy who was to be my husband. I did not know that at the time, but it came to pass. That fall many years ago I only thought of how wonderful it was to wade through the leaves and hear the crunching sound . . . and to be in love. I loved the touch of sadness as the year seemed to be dying a bit, how it sharpened the senses and made me aware of nature and how beautifully it swiped its paintbrush and evidenced itself in the fall of the year
My soul mate and I used to hang out at Stone Mountain—we rented a rowboat one year—and paddled all around the lake. And as we rowed I was acutely aware of the yellowing, fading of the few hardwoods that were interspersed among the Georgia Pines. The lake water seemed like molten gold and as we skirted the edge of the lake I saw a multitude of tiny tadpoles. I knew I was creating what I call a KODAK moment. I can feel it as my mind’s eye seems to snap a picture of the things I am seeing, experiencing. These are not everyday events, these KODAK moments, but are etchings on my brain that seem to stay over all the other minutiae that I lose in the swirl up there.
A KODAK moment can be recalled and lived over and over, like a small movie that only you know about. It requires no equipment, no streaming, no power--except the power of memory.
These memories serve me well in my old age—I am not as nimble or adventurous as I used to be. I do still enjoy the fall with its cornucopia of color, its pumpkins, the hot cider, the nippy days and shafts of fading light as this old orb rotates its way into fall. And all this can be recalled as I muse while I simply sit in my yard or loll on my sofa.
Fall always has seemed bittersweet as the year is winding down, but never more so than now—now without my love, the one who captured my heart. I find myself humming “Autumn Leaves” and even going to YOUTUBE to hear that song. And when it gets to the line about “The summer kisses, The sunburned hands I used to hold”* I am taken back to a fall day when I did hold such sunburned hands and breathe in the crisp air and revel in the love I had then. Ah, Fall, I love it so.
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* Per Wikipedia--"Autumn Leaves" is a popular song and jazz standard composed by Joseph Kosma in 1945 with original lyrics by Jacques Prévert in French, and later by Johnny Mercer in English.
Want to learn all about the song “Autumn Leaves?” Well, go to this website and you can read about the genesis of the song, its history and hear it sung by many, like my favorite, Nat King Cole: