Thoughts on Autumn by Deborah Kinnard

Desert Breeze author Deborah Kinnard shares her thoughts about autumn with us.

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For some reason, I’ve never conceptualized time’s passage as a linear thing, but a circle. The dark, cold months of the year huddle at the “bottom.” We transition up in the spring, across the top in the summer, and back down the left side in the fall. Now’s the downward journey, but there’s so much excitement in going down! Isn’t the most thrilling part of roller coaster the part where you take that wild, shrieking plunge?

My bizarre time-viewpoint aside, autumn is time to retrench. We pull back from the fresh-fruit-and-salad menus of summer for a heartier table. I love squash, grilled corn, apples so crisp they fight back when bitten. Summer’s busy dash-and-go gives way to the closer-in activities of cooler weather. My kids hover a bit closer to the hearth, and I feel comfort in that they’re home early as the days grow short.

It’s time to find the gloves, hats and winter gear so joyfully abandoned in spring. This year, while pulling warm clothing from storage, my daughter Sarah and I found a needlepoint project of my mother’s. Mom’s been gone over twenty years. I never saw this small packet when I cleared away her things. She didn’t finish the needlepoint. I can’t say why. How long has it been sitting, waiting, for an autumn afternoon and four eager, untaught hands?

Sarah and I tackle the small Christmas projects. “Here, like this,” I say. “I think.” We experiment, laugh, pull out stitches that go curiously astray. After quite a few false starts, we finish the decorations Mom started so long ago.

Pass on the knowledge.

Close the circle.