I Wore My Raincoat

I wore my raincoat

And backpack with rain cover

Fall rituals launched

Fall is a lovely time of year, and it is just starting. The weather sashays from the steadiness of ever-warming days to lesser-warming days through the uncertainty of transition to fall. Rather than savoring the slow sinking of the sun after a blisteringly hot day, fall in its temperamentalness favors quicker pleasures – a crisp morning followed by short-sleeved afternoons; the smell of green chile roasting (for my friends from New Mexico) countered by the scent of petrichor, the sudden rain mixing with the dust and trees and grass; howling winds of 4:30 in the morning, shaking tree branches and blowing leaves, gone with the morning dawn and back to the splendid calm of colorful backyard birds and squirrels chortling and pecking their way through breakfast.

September whooshing

Enough to bend heavy limbs

Usher in autumn

Early mornings I take my own emotional/spiritual/mental temperature, and find what I am grateful for. Lately, they have taken the form of David Steindl-Rast’s splendid book, 99 Blessings . In that form, which begins “You bless us…”, the gifts I write about don’t seem so self-serving (“Thank you for getting me to work on time”, “I’m grateful that my cold is over”, "I appreciate you letting me into your lane") and more related to our common humanity and even more to the larger world and even the universe.

As we move into fall, I find myself being grateful for changes, the cycle of the seasons and of life, for opportunities to renew what I’ve let go or squandered, and for the opportunity to reflect. Winter will bring more opportunities for deeper thought, because fall is also a busy time, but the season's disruptions of the physical world are analogous to those disruptions that occur in our lives.

Here are some recent fall-related entries in my gratitude journal (rough, unedited):

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You bless us with cool mornings, chill that tightens the skin and wakes us to changing seasons. You bless us with dogs who bark and bark across the fence – we know this dog brings love to a family, to three boys and their parents.
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You bless us with overcast days, that remind us of our dark contemplative side. Of our soulful side, our inner angst, our deepest, more profound, most exposed selves.
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You bless us with the first real end-of summer rain day. Cleansing and refreshing and nourishing.
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You bless us with umbrellas, and raincoats, and waterproof shoes. The rain you bless us with too. We are grateful for petrichor* and standing open to the wet and also for the warm shelter to hold us after.

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I do love each season. It’s fall, so today fall is my favorite season of all.

I felt a sharp chill

As dawn overcame the night

‘till sun shown through leaves

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Cooler day today

Fall sneaks up on our summer

Says “Boo”. We’re startled.

*One is likely to note that I have fallen in love with the word “petrichor” and, more, how it describes as best one can, that smell of rain ‘a comin’, ‘a fallin’, and ‘a leavin’.

References:

Steindl-Rast, D. (2013). 99 blessings (1st ed.). New York: Image Books.