By Tabitha Bozeman
This week marked the beginning of my very most favorite season of the year: Autumn. As F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” I usually feel as if I don’t get the time — or take the time — to really enjoy it, though. So much is going on this time of year, from school activities with my children, to sporting events, and then the holidays are upon us and it’s a whirlwind dash to the end of the year from there.
This week, I have decided to make an intentional list of autumnal challenges for myself. Nothing grand. No massive undertakings. But I’d love to include several simple fall activities or goals that I can weave into our busy schedule, creating space in this season for actually registering and enjoying this time. So, I spent a few minutes this week brainstorming ideas and came up with a few things I want to make sure I do, either on my own or with my family.
The top of the list is walking through the fallen leaves. I noticed how many there already are on my sidewalk yesterday when I returned from work, and I love the way “the trees overhead made a great sound of letting down their dry rain” (Ray Bradbury), and the crackling leaves underfoot. I usually only notice this in passing, though, and so this fall I plan to actually take several walks with my family, appreciating the sounds and colors and smells and textures of this season. Rilke appreciate this sensory-rich season, too, writing, “At no other time (than autumn) does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste, and more honey-sweet where you feel it touching the first sounds.”
That brings me to my next set of activities, each focused on the plethora of sensory treats Autumn offers: painting the fall colors with my watercolors, having an apple-cider tea party outside under the trees with my girls, crafting new seasonal ornaments from oranges and cloves and cinnamon sticks to hang up in our home, and baking mini apple pies one afternoon.
While these activities will each be opportunities for family fun and memory-making, I also have a few items on my list that are just for me. It is still too hot out for many of my favorite fall things, but it is also the season for planning ahead to what comforting things might be appreciated once it is cold. So, I plan to crochet a fluffy lap blanket this fall, just to have when I curl up with a book on cooler weekend evenings. I know I am running low on some of my favorite hot teas and cocoa mixes, too — I will make sure to restock those so I’m ready for the first chilly evening. And nothing says cozy autumn homebody to me quite like lamplight and seasonal decorations, so I have also planned a few days to pull out fall decor, rearrange some small lamps, and pull out the candles I put away when it warmed up several months (an eternity!) ago.
To round out my list of autumnal activities, I have begun researching books to add to my TBR list, as well, that will provide opportunity to slow down and luxuriate in this season, one chapter at a time. I’d like to discover some new reads, and I will probably re-read Jane Eyre, as the Brontë sisters always feel fall-ish. And I might flip back through some Austen favorites, too, as I sit on my porch and watch the trees turn. After all, Jane Austen described the fall as “that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness — that season which has drawn from every poet worthy of being read some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling.”
