A final word

Fall has to be one of the most exquisite times of the year. And for those of us in the northerly climes, October showcases the beauty of the season unlike any of the other autumn months.

The poet Robert Frost captured the gentle longing that wishes this magical season not pass by too quickly.

O hushed October morning mild,

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,

Should waste them all.

The crows above the forest call;

Tomorrow they may form and go.

O hushed October morning mild,

Begin the hours of this day slow.

Make the day seem to us less brief.

Hearts not averse to being beguiled,

Beguile us in the way you know.

Release one leaf at break of day;

At noon release another leaf;

One from our trees, one far away.

Retard the sun with gentle mist;

Enchant the land with amethyst.

Slow, slow!

For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,

Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,

Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—

For the grapes’ sake along the wall.[i]

Don’t we—especially those of us who are in or who are approaching the autumn of our lives—wish those days would rush by a little more slowly? that this magical season not pass by too quickly?

I resonate with this sentiment from Anne of Green Gables when Anne observes: “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”[ii]

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[i] Robert Frost, “October,” in A Boy’s Will (New York: Henry Holt, 1915).

[ii] L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (Canada: L. C. Page, 1908)