I wake up cold.
I can feel there’s a good chance of frost in the low meadow so I fumble around awkwardly to get dressed while still inside my sleeping bag. I grab my camera. I walk under golden maple leaves along the little woodland path toward where the sun comes up along the eastern edge.
The sun is already well above the horizon. I worry for a moment that I slept in too late and missed it. I stop when I come to the top of the grass path that runs down the slope. I can see the thin outline of every blade.
I want to freeze time right there, where the night frost greets the sun.
That thin place where fire meets ice.
Where the last flowers of summer stand jeweled in diamonds.
Where Autumn is everything it dreamed it could be.
Absolute magic.
And…I’m not cold at all;)
“And all at once, summer collapsed into fall.
Oscar Wilde”
“Wilderness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.”
“Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves,
We have had our summer evenings,
now for October eves!”
I arise, facing East,
I am asking toward the light,
I am asking that my day
Shall be beautiful with light.
I am asking that the place
Where my feet are shall be light,
That as far as I can see
I shall follow it alight.
I am asking for the courage
To go forward through the shadow,
I am asking toward the light!
-Mary Austin
