The Last Day of Summer - Autumn Begins

    An ode perhaps to this last traditional day of summer, but it is not really true. Nature knows its own boundaries and seasons and not those we attribute to a calendar of our own making. Seasons come and go, onsetting gradually. A few days and nights of a coolness, a specific chill, but it merely seems to overly the last remnants of Summer. Already into September, we will be having a heat wave of consecutive days of 90 degrees Fahrenheit, already unusual in and of itself.

   The cicadas are still in full chorus day and night, although stronger at night, this nocturnal hymn, and usually the continue until the end of October, when the harvest had ended and days are even cooler. Not yet Winter, no longer Summer, Autumn has its own rhythms and speeds.

   A time of transition, it always signals changes, and a bit of physical stress as we attempt to adapt. There is a distinct slowing down after the fast pace of Summer, fueled by the very energy of the sun it seems. A time now to cleanse, prepare for Winter, to reflect on where we have come thus far.

   Birds feel the signal and gather to migrate to warmer climes - heeding the call to do so. Animals hide food in their new burrows, nests are long forgotten until next Spring.

   A harbinger of change and things to come.