Today is the 1st day of September, and I feel autumn calling my name. Here in the northeast where I live, there is a peculiar, indefinable something that spills the secret, whispering in softest tones that the seasons are about to change. It’s a certain scent in the air, a certain shade of blue in the sky, a certain consciousness that pervades the atmosphere — the glorious days of fall are on the way.

Autumn is an almost tangible perception that affects everything from my coffee to my clothing to my home. In my contemplations about the approaching season, I can see misty images of myself dressed in plaid with a woolly sweater and java-colored loafers or leather boots. In this mirage, I am always smiling and full of vitality, sporting a cute purse and walking through a patch of pumpkins or a path of swirling leaves. (the fact that this vision has no factual base makes it all the more palatable.)

In the fall, I cherish my cinnamon and pumpkin spice coffee, and cast loving glances around my home which is decked with gourds, leaves, pinecones, and every other thing that bespeaks autumn. It is a season that lives in my very soul.

So, I am making a deliberate and tedious choice to wait a few more days before I pull my autumn treasures from the attic. (Actually, I have put out a few fall flowers already:-)

After the celebration of Labor Day this Monday, I can go through some of my fall rituals: taking down the American flag on the bracket outside the house; putting away my girls’ white shoes to be worn after next Easter if they still fit; turning my mind from sunny days to crisp evenings. And I will rejoice because the words of Genesis 8:22 are fulfilled with each dazzling autumn day…….”While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”