“Aprils have never meant much to me, autumns seem that season of beginning...”

--Truman Capote

By Kristin Faurest

What’s your season of beginning? For me it’s always been fall because, just when school is starting up, nature has so many lessons to offer for a little mental fall cleaning and starting over with a blank slate.

The autumn equinox, which happened a couple of weeks ago, marks fall’s arrival. On the day of an equinox, whether spring or fall, the Earth is tilting neither toward nor away from the sun, and so receives almost an equal amount of daylight and darkness, according to the National Weather Service. As sunlight diminishes, chlorophyll production grinds to a halt, green fades away and the leaves’ true color becomes apparent. That’s kind of a new way to look at it, isn’t it?

Among other lessons of fall nature…

We can take the equal division of days as a reminder that balance is everything. We have to accept and embrace darkness along with the light and appreciate the gift of the shadows along with the sunbeams.

As fall progresses, the advancing darkness of winter can mean uncertainty; it’s good to practice accepting that, too. Nature offers us great examples of how to be resilient and respond well to the unexpected and unplanned.

Autumn is also a wonderful reminder of how a thing can be more beautiful and worthy of celebration because it is fleeting. Summer, at least in our area, can be wondrous but it lasts for months. Those crisp, cooled-down spice-tinged fall days and the flashes of gold and crimson in the trees seem to only last a few days. It’s like a reminder from the trees to appreciate and cherish those things in life that we will not have forever. And autumn also reminds us about letting go of burdens that no longer serve us well – like negative memories, grudges, and hurt feelings.



If you want to know where and when to see fall color, you can check the Farmers’ Almanac, or you can use more modern tools like this interactive color-coded map that shows the entire country week by week: https://smokymountains.com/fall-foliage-map/

It looks like we’ll hit our peak in the next couple of weeks. It’s a great time to cultivate your relationship with nature. Get out and walk through the woods, paying attention to what birds you do and don’t hear – the summer cacophony has been replaced with a quieter vibe by now. Consider the cycle of nature – the leaves fall and gradually break down to become part of the soil, which then gives life to new leaves the following spring. Take comfort in the circular nature of things and patiently, thoughtfully prepare for winter.