Life in the Box: Optimistic Fall

September songs are always in a minor key. They are about Summer Ending and Winter Pending. They are about wishing summer would last longer. That’s just wrong!

Fall is its own world of changing colors and winds that blow warm sometimes; cold sometimes. Fall is glorious. Fall is generous with harvest tables full. Nuts and seeds are planted by vigorous squirrels. Fall is orange, yes, but also purple and blue and green.

What if we thought of Fall as warmly as we think of Spring’s blossoming and changing? The weather of both seasons are about the same. And for me, summer’s end is a relief. Who likes to be so hot and sweaty all the time? Give me jacket weather any day.

Walking with love through September and October and even early November is a balancing act of embracing change. Of seeing the world anew each day. Knowing it won’t always be like this.

Politics is on my mind this fall. I’m hoping the Washington craziness will stir change for the better–not as the fall of our democracy–but as impetus for us to plant the seeds of a stronger nation. I’m cheering for the squirrels. Let’s hope November this year sweeps away all the crazy nuts (and nazi nuts and corrupt nuts) and the only nuts planted for the future are the decent ones.

Meanwhile, crunch all the leaves, embrace all the colors, breathe deeply the life around us, and when the time comes, vote like our lives depend upon it. This year, many lives do depend on it.

Nancy Heather Brown is a retired, Emmy Award-winning television producer whose career has included interviewing, writing, narrating and editing for a span of four decades. Today, she enjoys learning new things and reflecting upon the creative process and life issues, both inside and outside the box. Her opinions are her own, and are not necessarily those of this web site.