SOUCHERAY: Settle into fall’s cool transition

Can you believe fall starts next week? It seems like the weeks and seasons fly by at break-neck speed, with little or no regard about our readiness for the change or not. Have you pulled out your fall wardrobe yet? Have you found the extra layer of sweaters and jackets to take to the football games or cross country meets? Fall has such a crispness and beauty, but it also seems to often be the least understood season.

Some people look forward to the cooler temperatures and the need for the extra blanket on the bed at night. But it seems that others reluctantly accept the season, with its shorter days and darker evenings, as if it is absorbing a little more sunlight each day. It’s time for the harvest and bringing in the produce from the fields, basking in the returns of the growing season of the summer and all the back-breaking work that was expended. It’s also time to close up the cabin for another year, often done reluctantly, due to the delightful memories that have been stored up, along with the videos and pictures on Facebook that convey a summer of rejuvenation and restoration.

But many others look forward in anticipation to the winter months to come, some with the expectation of wonderful runs on the ski slopes, here or out west, and the powder that will fly as they swoosh their way down the hill. Others will dig out their hockey sticks and sharpen their skates as they look forward to pick-up games at the local rink or the tournament teams of which they are a member.

But what about fall? It seems that it is an in-between season in which children return to the classroom, we have to put on darker, more somber clothing, prepare heartier meals and hunker down for the longer, more forbidding season of winter.

I do love the fall, though, for all the reasons stated here. I do appreciate returning to a more regular schedule, one that brings more clarity of purpose to every family’s life who has children of any age. I love the cooler evenings, with perhaps a window left open just enough to let in a bit of chill, autumn air, and the heaviness of the extra quilt to remind me that it’s time to let go and succumb to sleep at the end of another busy day.

I also simply drink in the beauty of the fall leaves. I treasure the spring and the new, marvelous tiny buds as they emerge in a miraculous way from their winter sleep. But I simply cannot get enough of a trip to the North Shore of Lake Superior to allow the colors everywhere we look to take our breath away. And as much as I look forward to the healthiness of a good, fresh salad, I do savor the comfort food of fall, with its heartier fare, sumptuous aromas and tantalizing tastiness. Nothing can compare to the recipe in my quarter-century old ECFE cookbook for “The World’s Best Meatloaf.” And it truly is.

I find fall to be a season to regroup and take stock of all that has occurred in the busy, wonderful summer months that have just flown by, so busy that it is almost impossible to remember everything that took place. It is also a season to plan for what the longer winter months will hold. Is there a play we will take in at Christmas time? Or a concert that is of particular interest? Or perhaps a dinner at our favorite restaurant?

Fall does seem to be a season that is often seen as ordinary and unexceptional but that is gaining in its attractiveness to calm us and help us to recover from the busy summer months. It is time for us to prioritize what the coming days will look like, regarding our commitments and desires, as we slow down a bit. So enjoy the fall and allow it to offer you a mellower time, a time to sort out what has gone and what is ahead.

Soucheray is a licensed family therapist and a Woodbury resident

Tags: opinion, column