The State Fair is tomorrow...

and with it the summer begins its departure. The daylight is already shorter, the temperatures cooler, and children are thinking of school.

The older I get the more the charm of winter fades but autumn has retained its hold on me. The heat of the summer disappears yet warmth remains. The days are shorter but the colors compensate for it in their vibrancy. September is the best of months, the only one I wish would last the year. October has its moments, the month when you can wear your best sweaters, but then the long wait begins.

Darkness settles, snow falls, the cold descends and refuses to loosen its grip until some time in March when life again will not be denied. We hibernate, if not in fact at least in spirit, our horizons constrained by the chill just outside our doors. The only sign of hope is the calendar on our wall, a tropical scene for each month, a reminder that somewhere what is all around us is not all there is.

But this morning is sunny and cool, the best kind of day and I'll store each and every one of these days in my soul like a battery to power me through the night to come. It's time to be outside, to move freely, to absorb the sun, and take care of chores. It is the season of drawing all things together so that spring, when it comes, will find a remaining spark of life, an ember that its gentle winds can once again restore to flame.