Autumn is a time of cool days and nights and happy memories, but also it is the most sadly wistful time of the year for me in Daydreaming on the Porch

The air has been cool and crisp. Autumn has fully descended, and I love the memories and associations of this time of year. I like to eat pumpkin muffins and honey crisp apples. I walk out on the porch to get some fresh air and it feels so wonderful, a cool tonic to the spirit. The crepe myrtles should be just about bare now in the garden of the house downtown where I lived for so many years, opening up the clear, blue skies I’d gaze up at as I rocked on my beloved front porch.

I think one of the reasons I’ve always liked Autumn is that I am such a romantic and idealist at heart. I dream too often perhaps of what might have been: the smoky smell of burning leaves that I have raked into a big pile in the front yard of my old, white clapboard country house, the one with the big wrap-around porch. There’s a fire in the fireplace, the sofa is full of books and magazines to read, a cup of hot chocolate waits, steaming on top of the wicker table on the porch. The sounds of children laughing and playing in the distance fill the air, dogs bark occasionally, and birds vie for a place in the birdbath, joyfully splashing each other…. I am alone, an old man.

This was a brief snapshot my life as I once envisioned it. Now years later, there is no country house and wrap-around porch, but there is an old man, alone with his thoughts this late October evening. All I hear are the wind chimes tinkling away from their perch on the balcony. A cool wind is blowing. I’ll soon be out on that balcony, thinking deep and somewhat sad thoughts as I rock in the same chair that’s been a friend for 25 years.

But I’ll think also about how grateful I am for my loving family, many rich and varied job experiences, and the friends who have made my life so much more satisfying and rewarding. They may not be physically present anymore, but they are always here with me in spirit. Late in life, you think a lot about these things.

I’ve been out and about capturing Autumn with my camera. The brilliant colors are there if you know where to look for them. They can be as fleeting as my moods this Fall, and maybe that’s a good thing.

Autumn,South Carolina Lowcountry
https://www.flickr.com/gp/camas/2Ej5u8Zz83