Reflection on Fall

The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky

--William Butler Yeats


For this assignment, I'm taking a break from the theme of this blog, and writing about my favorite season: fall.

To create this video, I thought about what fall brought to mind for me. Fall, I decided, is mostly about change. The type of change that the season of fall brings about is death. The leaves die and fall - giving the season its name - and every piece of nature prepares for the oncoming winter by either following the leaves and dying, or finding a way to hibernate.

Fall is my favorite season for precisely this reason: I love seeing the change around me happening. It makes me feel more in control of my own life. And I find the death and sleep of the natural world fascinating. I love decaying things, old things, broken things. Things that are left around to crumble on their own. Fall creates many of these images in my mind.

Leaves are captivating on their own. They grow from buds on trees into green plants. When the weather gets colder they turn golden, red, orange, and finally brown. Then they fall to the ground to become soil, so that new plants can grow. Leaves are beautiful. They are the perfect example of how life isn't a line, and doesn't revolve around one subject. Life consists of many circles and loops and it revolves around every being in the world.

Fall is cold sometimes and warm sometimes. It is the time for apple cider and hayrides and corn mazes. For carving pumpkins and eating pie and getting lost in the woods and writing a novel. It's sweaters and wool socks and sometimes shorts instead. It's everything good about winter, without being too cold.

Autumn is a great reminder about a lot of things having to do with life. That it evolves, and ends, but never fully dies. Life gives way to new life, and leaves are all part of one cycle of helping life to continue on.

This is why fall is my favorite season.