Autumn

I love autumn. Maybe it's the changing colors, maybe it's the cooler temperatures, or maybe it's just that most of the world's little rug rats are finally back in school. No, I'm teasing, it's not just one of those things, it's all of them.
But seriously, there is something about fall. Some of my most vivid memories are of late September, early October night soccer practice. Fresh cut grass, the sun slanting at just the right angle to catch every little evening bug in the last rays. Life was so peaceful then.
It seems as though autumn lulls the world into a state of preparation. Anticipation of Thanksgiving, and Monday night football, this is the season of tradition. The season of celebration. The months of fall and winter have those few holidays where the whole world stops everything they are doing for just a few minutes, and observes some of the oldest traditions in our history. There is familiarity and family in the air. The death of the old comes as a promise of the chance at a rebirth with the spring.
The changing colors settle in like stain glass windows of nature telling a story of more to come. For most spring brings promise, for me, fall holds the key to my soul. Death holds the key to life. I think I have always known that. When Christ died, it was to break free the victory. When I die to the past, to the pain, to the unbearable heat of a summer, hope breaks free.
The heat of the summer has done it's work to shed unneeded extras, now the fall comes with the promise of beauty and rest, with winter around the corner and it's water to cleanse through.
Maybe I have been waiting for my whole life for fall. The beauty in the death of the old. The promise and anticipation for the cleansing winter. It has been a long and hot summer, and I am ready for autumn.