The sun sets due West today, and the temperature has dipped a little in convenient recognition of my post-summer hunger for long sleeves, colorful socks, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and hot spiced apple cider.  I’m going to buy a bright yellow chrysanthemum for my front porch, and we will likely pull out our squirrel candle holders, fluffy warm throws and other harvest-inspired furnishings.

The best decor by far comes from our Creator.  Outside every window is a riot of colorful leaves, bright green spiky sweet gum balls, and pine cones and acorns of varied shapes and sizes.  Maple seeds twirl in the breeze. Tulip Poplars  form their lovely wooden seed pods high up in the branches near the sky.  The sycamore balls hanging in Seussian splendor are turning from green to yellow and will soon dry out, slowly falling apart, releasing fuzzy seed pods to soften the straight edges and corners of the street.

Take a deep breath!

Smell the slightly crisper air?  Are the stars shining just a bit brighter in the clear night?  It’s Autumn!

GOLD LEAVES

Lo! I am come to autumn,
When all the leaves are gold;
Grey hairs and golden leaves cry out
The year and I are old.

In youth I sought the prince of men,
Captain in cosmic wars,
Our Titan, even the weeds would show
Defiant, to the stars.

But now a great thing in the street
Seems any human nod,
Where shift in strange democracy
The million masks of God.

In youth I sought the golden flower
Hidden in wood or wold,
But I am come to autumn,
When all the leaves are gold.

~G.K. Chesterton