changes of season

in my old age maturity, i’ve come to really appreciate the rhythms that flow throughout the year, bringing the seasons and their changes and uniqueness and the varying ways these affect our lives. when i was younger, i always said i liked summer the best, because i liked warm weather. i held to this until a year or two ago, when in the spring, we were driving down a road and i was practically jumping out of my seat with excitement over the beautiful flowering trees and the other deciduous trees which were starting to get their leaves. that combined with the vigil i start keeping in late january when the first little green peaks of what will be daffodil leaves poke their way out of the frozen ground caused dave to point out that he thought my favorite season was really spring. he’s got a point. so i’ve thought about it, trying my best to come up with a firm ‘favorite’, and i can honestly say that it’s impossible! the closest i could come would be to identify a least favorite season, which would probably have to be winter because i find coats to be bothersome and i don’t really like being cold. BUT, with winter comes a chance for snow. and if you want to see me REALLY get all crazy-excited, just tell me there’s a chance of snow in the forecast! seriously. i LOVE snow. i could sit at the window and watch it fall for HOURS. no, really. HOURS! there is something so incredible about seeing a familiar landscape, such as your own front yard, completely transformed by a blanket of white. i love the way it smells when it’s going to snow. i love the way everything is so quiet. even in the middle of the busy suburbs, it makes me think of my favorite robert frost poem, stopping by woods on a snowy evening. “the woods are lovely, dark and deep…”

but i digress…

now it is fall. leaves are changing from that long-awaited green to beautiful shade of yellow, red, orange and brown, spiders hang in webs everywhere imaginable, my pumpkins are ripening, it’s windy out and we’re building fires to keep the house warm. i love all this too.

this change of weather is always hard on the kids though. for the past four months or so, they’ve made very little distinction between their play indoors and out. they’ve roamed freely between the house and yard with little thought to it. now they are irritated by having to be bothered with impediments like shoes and jackets. it’s like there’s a conscious decision that has to be made whether to go out or not, whereas before, the only real distinction was the surface under their bare feet and that they could be louder.

i suppose this will seem like a small transition, come hat and mitten weather! ;)