September is probably one of my favorite months because it leads into one of the best times of the year—autumn. Cooler weather, Halloween, flannels, pumpkin patches, boots, apple cider, and everything else that goes along with this season brings me a happy, nostalgic feeling every year that other seasons just can’t manage to do. But every season has its purpose, with spring being a time of awakening, summer a time for relaxation, and winter a season of rest. Fall is a time for reflecting back on the year as the next year gets closer and closer--reminiscing to past falls spent jumping in piles of leaves, going on hayrides and eating candy apples.
Although, in a way, the leaves change color, float to the ground, and the trees are left looking sad and barren. Grass turns from green to brown and everything ends up looking a bit lackluster in the end. But the middle part—the part when everywhere you look is filled with bright oranges, reds and yellows—that’s the part that makes it all worth it. That brief moment of color and vivacity makes the inevitable cold and darkness a bit more bearable, as well as making yourself a bit more appreciative. The transition to fall allows a rebirth all its own.
And I think that’s applicable to life, too; when you experience something so great for only a short amount of time, you also realize how lucky you were to have it, even if only briefly. It's those fleeting periods of time that seem to go by in the blink of an eye that you wonder if they really happened at all. Just as the leaves change and disappear, so is it with people and circumstances in our own lives.
And we’re lucky enough to experience this reminder each year. It gives you that initiative to have a revival of your own. So when you're driving down the road these next couple months, glancing up at all the colors, remember to think back on all those moments that brought color into your own life in the past year. And think about how many more you've yet to experience, just as you experience the leaves changing again and again. As F. Scott Fitzgerald said in "The Great Gatsby," "Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall."
