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By David G. Allan, CNN
Fall is the season for all the senses. The feeling of cooler temperatures after a long summer. A warm and visually pleasing palate of reds, oranges and browns. The taste of pumpkin spice in everything. The sound of crisp leaves underfoot. The smell of wood smoke.
The many elements of fall inherently bring happiness or trigger memories of past joy that we can continue to bite into, like a freshly baked apple pie.
As we celebrate the seasonal joys, we must remember that they are flames on a path that runs deep into a beautiful forest of wisdom and meaning.
Like spring, fall is a transitional season, a reminder of the value of change, in this case from a bright, buzzing, verdant summer to the dark, quiet stillness of winter. It is an inward journey; first experiential, then intellectual and finally in the collective unconscious.
The holidays this season remind us to be grateful for our generosity and to have fun. Our senses lead us to embrace the outdoors. Our emotions are heightened, our brains are kicking in, and our sense of time and place is tucked away in big piles of autumnal joy leaves.
Blaze one: how you feel
“The fall weather is perfect,” explained my oldest daughter. It is neither too hot (summer) nor too cold (winter) and more comfortable than spring.
Those first days of the year when it’s cold enough to need a sweater or hoodie are a revelation. Feeling the cold on your skin and in your lungs is both a respite and a stimulus. The oppression of the summer heat is overthrown by the autumn rebels, layered on top of each other in the form of sweaters, vests, scarves and hats.
This season is simply more enjoyable than the others. Some animals, like the fox, also have comfortable, thicker fur in preparation for winter. We are again able to control our body temperature, with sartorial flair.
The emotions we feel in the fall also seem more complex. There are many fun and enjoyable activities; it is a season designed to commune with friends, family and nature. But there is also something melancholy about the season.
“You expected to be sad in the fall,” Ernest Hemingway wrote in “A Moveable Feast”, because “a part of you has died every year.”
But there is also a rebirth in the fall after the hot, laconic summer days. It may be the energy field surrounding a new school year – even this complicated one – but there is electricity in the air. It’s the most academically stimulating season (and not just because classes resume) – I love to dive into a good book on a cold fall day.
This energy may have been what F. Scott Fitzgerald felt when he wrote: “Life begins anew when it becomes sharp in the fall.”
So get in touch with all the sensations of the season. Go to the bottom and have fun. Rake the leaves and feel their cushiony embrace with a classic stack jump.
Blaze 2: what you see
“Autumn light is the most beautiful light there is,” wrote author Margaret Renkl. “Gentle, indulgent, he makes the world an illuminated dream. “
It is through this light (even if there is less and less each day that passes) that we assist the harvest moon, pumpkins, football and baseball games, wildflowers blooming along the roads, squirrels secreting nuts and the first frost.
I love watching perennial fall movies like “Rushmore,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “St. Elmo’s Fire” or “Donnie Darko.” Halloween, of course, has no shortage of. horror films that bring us closer to what we mortally fear and in doing so help us feel more alive.
Election years we can watch the latest political debates and returns from election night in the fall. Many political careers die in November, but many are born as well.
But it’s especially those beautiful technicolor deciduous trees that we love to look at, your maples, oaks and elms. “Autumn is a second spring when each leaf is in flower”, wrote Albert Camus.
“I think of the trees and the simplicity with which they let go, let go of the riches of a season, how without sorrow (it seems) they can let go and sink into their roots to recharge their batteries and sleep”, said writes the poet and novelist May. Sarton in “Journal d’une solitude”.
And it is from Sarton that we draw the stoic wisdom of trees and their lesson in change. “Imitate the trees,” she wrote. “Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain, psychic pain. Sit down. Let it all pass. Let it go.”
Blaze 3: What you taste
Is that pumpkin spice? In my coffee drink, my yogurt and my Jell-O? On my donuts, pretzels, Pop Tarts and English muffins? (All true.) It’s a testament to how much we love fall that food and beverage makers have harnessed a spice blend that induces it. It’s gotten to a point where taste is synonymous with season.
But cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves aren’t the only flavors of fall. For many, it’s the return of hot drinks in general, like tea and apple cider. It is harvest season after all. Apples, plums, pears and more are ripe, straight from the tree or baked into a pie.
Most of the holidays of the season are linked to the harvest. The Jewish Sukkot recreates the huts that were once temporarily erected in ancient Egypt and throughout the exodus to be close to the harvest of the crops. Nigerians have a tradition every fall celebrating their old harvest: yams. Germany has Oktoberfest, the party barge that launched a thousand seasonal beers.
The Japanese have traditional rice harvest festivals this season with parades and a dragon dance. Japan also has a Labor Thanksgiving Day every November, apparently combining two fall vacations in the United States: the one we see as the season’s kick-off, Labor Day, and more. famous, Thanksgiving.
American Thanksgiving has its historical roots in a harvest celebration between native Wampanogs and British immigrants in 1621. The next 300 years don’t go so well, but the enduring American festival has remarkable resistance for the way it brings together. families, remains inclusive non-religious and showcases (too) delicious fall harvest foods such as green beans, yams, wheat (stuffing), corn and pumpkin pie.
However, American children are probably more thanking Halloween. It’s fun dressing up, going out after dark, chasing evil spirits, and gorging on all that sweet candy.
The tastes of fall remind us to come together and eat the fruits of our labor and be grateful for our company, and a little mischievous.
Blaze Four: what you hear
There is a Greek word, psithurism, which translates to “the sound of leaves rustling in the wind”. Add the horn of the birds flying south, the sound of the wind in the bare trees, the cries of “Trick or Treat!” The cheers and bass drum sound of football games, and you have a fall symphony.
Let these sounds transport you to another plane of reality, if you can. Buddhist poet Beat Gary Snyder begins with an insect sound when he writes:
The sweet autumn buzz of crickets
is ours
So are we in the trees
As are they
To rocks and hills
Tune into the fall frequency and ponder our place in the ever-changing kinetic existence that we are so fortunate to be a part of.
Blaze five: smell
Stop and smell the s’mores.
Fall camping (even in backyards) engages all of the senses, but when you add the dirt, trees, smoke from the fire, and outdoor cooking that come with the outing, you have a scent blessing that will take you away. waits in nature. As you walk in the woods, this smell of decay recalls impermanence and the place of the fall in the cycle from death to rebirth.
Smell is the most common sense of memory, research has shown. So when you become aware of the unique aromas of fall, you not only remember and relive the bliss of the past, but you create memories for your future self.
‘At all, there is a season’
As the seasonal merry-go-round turns, hop on at each stop. I try to align my mental and physical activity with the season I am in. It is an opportunity to commune with the change of nature, to embrace its reminders. Celebrate the holidays, understand their meaning, enjoy the loot any time of year you are in.
“Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit and resign yourself to the influence of the earth, ”Henry David Thoreau advised in“ Walden, ”his practical meditation on seasonal living.
In winter, dive deep into yourself and make yourself comfortable there. In the spring, let yourself come out of the cocoon for we have endured the darkness and need to let in the light. In the summer, go outside, be free and run after happiness like a puppy after its own tail.
And in the fall, welcome an inner, grateful focus as the days grow colder, darker, and more meaningful.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.
David G. Allan is the Editorial Director of CNN Travel, Style, Science and Wellness. This essay is part of a column called The Wisdom Project, to which you can subscribe here.
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