Autumn Leaves/Arrives

There is something magical about autumn that I cannot quite pin down. Summer is the season during which I feel least connected to nature. Summer, with its lazy holiday heat, is about humans flourishing and (occasionally literally but mainly not) making hay while the sun shines. It feels like we are basking in a victory over nature, rejoicing in the one time of year when our preposterously evolved, hairless, unfit bodies need no protection from the elements.

To some, autumn is the start of the death that concludes with winter's barren trees, only for life to begin again in the spring, but I feel almost the opposite. I sense nature far more strongly when it is at its harshest. Autumn's decay, to me, signals the return of nature, and the last few days have been infused with that evocative, tell-tale smell of this decay.

And I love the stability of attitude that the cold brings. I feel far more comfortable when I am in the autumnal equilibrium of cold air versus warm clothing. The mass acceptance, once the mornings become frosty, that cosiness is now a goal on a par with sustenance (at least until spring) makes me contented to an extent that I'm not sure I fully understand. I appear to be suffering from some bizarrely inverted Seasonal Affective Disorder, so here's to a happy hibernation.