The Transition from Summer to Winter

By Carol Woolum Roberts

On our Zoom chat on Tuesday we had a great conversation about the 90 Days of Autumn Awareness project that begins today.

One of the conversations on the chat centered around the rituals that come about as we make the transition from summer to winter.

Already I am spending more time inside.  No more evening card games on the patio.

It is dark now when my alarm goes off at 5:20 a.m.  Recently I fell back asleep for about ten minutes and kept dreaming.  My eyes popped open and saw on the clock it was 5:30 a.m.  Oh no, I need to get moving!!

The Tri-color Beech tree in our backyard is dropping the beechnuts onto the lawn.

The Linden trees is dropping some of their leaves. I wait with anticipation for the lovely bursts of yellow, red and orange that will soon dot the hills and the streets of my hometown.

My television shows are starting their new season.

I had to go to the store and buy some caramel to eat with my apples.  To me, one of the tastes of autumn is apples dipped in caramel.

A friend let us pick pears off her tree.

One of my favorite cool weather clothing items I wear during the season of Autumn is a Calvin Klein pullover.  It is so comfortable, and I love wearing it.

Each morning I start my day with a cup of coffee. As the weather starts to cool, a hot cup of tea sounds good.  I often drink this mid-morning, or midafternoon.  I rarely drink hot tea in the spring or summer.

The look of my house will change with the coming of autumn.  Soon the front porch will have some hay bales, and a scarecrow surrounded by harvest decorations.  The summer decorations will be stored, and the colors of fall will be prevalent throughout my home.  Even the doormat changes to reflect the new season.

I start watching the weather more closely, especially the nighttime temperatures, to see if there will be close to freezing temperatures that could do some harm to the garden.  (I am hoping for a late frost this year!!)

I look forward to cozy sweaters and sweatshirts, fires in the fireplace and the outside firepit, warm, hearty comfort food,  the continued harvesting of the garden, and beautiful, sun-filled Indian summer days.

I love how the NIV version of the Bible talks about God creating seasons, in Genesis 1:14: 

¹⁴ And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years,

The change of seasons are sacred times in our lives.  For me, I like the transitions from one season to the next. It works with my rhythms of life.

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Is there any ritual you perform as you make the transition into the season of autumn?

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