The Season That Teaches Us to Notice
A few weeks each year, the world seems to get everything just right. The air is cool without being too cold. Summer's heat has finally loosened its grip, but winter hasn’t yet arrived. You can walk outside in a sweatshirt and be perfectly comfortable. You can leave the windows open; the air smells different, and everything feels a little quieter.
Then there are the trees. For most of the year, we pass them without thinking much about them. They are green, then, suddenly, they are impossible to ignore. Reds, oranges, yellows, and every shade in between cover the hillsides. Even the roads we travel every day look different somehow.
Fall has a way of making ordinary places beautiful again, and maybe that is one reason I love it so much. There is something comforting about sweatshirt weather. It is warm enough to spend time outside but cool enough to appreciate a fire. Nothing is quite like sitting near one as the evening air cools, watching the flames and feeling their warmth while everything beyond them settles into darkness.
Then the moon rises. Some fall nights seem especially clear. The sky is dark, the air is crisp, and the moon can be so bright it seems to light everything beneath it. The colorful leaves that demanded attention during the day become shadows against the night sky. The fire crackles, the air grows colder, and for a little while, there is nowhere else you need to be.
Those are the moments I wish would last longer. Part of what makes fall so beautiful is knowing it won’t stay like that forever. The brilliant leaves only last a short time. One windy day can change everything. A tree covered in color yesterday can be nearly bare tomorrow. The comfortable afternoons grow colder, the sweatshirts eventually give way to coats, and we watch the fire from inside instead of sitting outside.
We know it is coming. Still, a few perfect days remain. I think life gives us many such moments, though we don't always recognize them as they happen. We are often waiting for what comes next. We look forward to the weekend, the next vacation, the next holiday, the next accomplishment, or the next season of our lives. Something is always ahead of us, demanding our attention.
Fall reminds me to notice what is here now. Look at the trees, feel the air, put on the sweatshirt, sit by the fire, and look up at the moon. Stay a little longer. Another season will always come, but this exact evening will never come again. That may sound overly sentimental for a pile of leaves and a cool night, but getting older has made me appreciate the temporary differently.
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I used to think the best things were the ones that lasted, but now I’m not so sure. Sometimes knowing something won’t last is exactly what makes us pay attention. Children grow up. Parents get older. Homes change. Careers change. People move. Traditions evolve. Seasons come and go. Even the versions of ourselves we think we know so well eventually become the people we remember.
Nothing stays exactly the same. Fall doesn’t seem to resist that truth. It makes change beautiful. A tree doesn’t become less beautiful because its leaves are about to fall. For a few weeks, it becomes more beautiful than it has been all year, and that's worth remembering.
Change isn’t always something to fear. An ending doesn’t erase what came before. Moving into another season doesn’t mean we failed to appreciate the last one. Life was never meant to remain exactly the same, and neither were we. Another season will always be ahead. Some will be warm and easy. Others will ask more of us.
We don’t have to rush through any of them. Fall is here. The leaves are beautiful. The air is cool. The sweatshirts are out. The fires are burning. The moon is bright. Soon the branches will be bare, and the colder days will arrive. That's why these last few days deserve notice.
That is the gift of fall. It reminds us that beautiful things don’t need to last forever to matter. Sometimes we just need to pause long enough to notice them while they are here.
About the Author
RJ Koehler is a published author who has written five books, including four memoirs and one book about education. If you like what you’ve read, please consider following her or learning more about her and her books on her Amazon Author Page.
