Autumn

Early autumn is not my favorite time of year, just as sundown is not my favorite time of day, notwithstanding both can be beautiful.  Both evoke such poignant memories.  My Kids were raised at a time and in a place where they could go out in the rolling Chino hills and be gone all day, the rule being they had to be home by dark.  Come sundown, like a mother hen, I wanted all my chicks inside, under my wings.  The coming dusk was a time of waiting, always tinged with slight anxiety.  Now, as darkness approaches, I count beaks and muzzles, wanting all in my care to be safe for the night, well fed and warm.  Fall is the sundown of the year, and the transition somehow makes me sad.  It signals the beginning of the end, as it were...another day done, another year gone.  Once the change is complete, it's a different matter.  The hills will blaze with color, there will be the smell of wood smoke in the air, and there will be the anticipation of the holidays to come.  This is the time of waiting.