I Survived...and Now It's Fall

Or at least, it will be Fall in 17 hours.  It was a long difficult Summer.  Work supplied seemingly endless challenges and stress, the weather was brutally hot and dry, we said goodbye to two much-loved cats, hid in the air-conditioned bedroom for days on end, and dreamt of Fall.  And while the forecast for the next three days (90 on Friday?!  Are you kidding me?!) belies the astronomical event that is the Fall Equinox tonight, the dreams are becoming reality.  We've had a fire three evenings in the last week (okay, one of them was to make Linda happy; I was in shorts and a T-shirt).  I slept in fuzzy socks two nights ago. There's been pumpkin bread and carrot soup.  More importantly, last night's wind had an October sound; the leaves and grasses are turning (granted, it's early, and probably induced more by lack of water than Fall temperatures); the sunlight this morning, when I walked Yeti  to the cow pasture and back, was liquid gold as it rippled through leaves.  The male hummingbirds have already left to scout out South American winter love nests, pumpkins and winter squashes are piled high at the Farmers' Market, squirrels are racing about frantically, stockpiling for lean, cold months ahead, and we already have mice in the house (deep sigh).  I'm making plans...from finally covering my fabulous yard-sale -found cedar-lined wool storage chest with the atrocious 1970s blonde finish, to gathering wool of all kinds so I can get back to knitting (I have a scarf to finish, three more to make AND a throw to complete--all in time for Christmas; alas, Linda's sweater will be a post-Christmas project), to staining and assembling--or watching Linda assemble--the spinning wheel, to planning with delight for the arrival of friends in October (and October will be beyond-words-decadent, because after the painfully long Summer at work, I'm taking lots of vacation time during my favorite month; I'll actually be home more days than at work for one blessed month!!). Summer is grasping at life with now-bony fingers, fighting to the death (could this be part of the meaning behind skeletons at Halloween?), but after tonight's delicate, momentary balancing-of-the-scales at 11:09 pm, only the remnants, memories and last gasps will remain. For many people in the northern hemisphere,  Fall--and her sister Winter--gift us with a time of turning inward, of contemplation, dormancy, rest and restoration; for me it's all of that, a season of ritual--but a time I feel well and truly alive.  I'm all for adding a pumpkin or two and tipping the scales my way right this moment!