The Great Cool Down

I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to talk about the earthquake. The entire internet has been abuzz since yesterday afternoon with continuous talk about the earthquake. So, for a little break from earthquake related news, I'm going to talk about the weather.

Of course, it is now late August and the college is back to its normal rhythm of classes and social events. It's a time of new beginnings as all of the students get used to new living arrangements, classes, and classmates. We had my sister over for dinner last night, and she filled us in on all the new policies and the new goings on at the school. As I sat there listening to her, though, it struck me just how incongruous it was that school BEGINS in late August.

This year more than ever I've noticed what a time of change late August is. It is the beginning of the end, as it were. It is the time where the heat of July finally breaks, the weather cools just slightly, and everything finally feels like it is moving towards Fall. All the major events of the summer are over now. Throughout all of last spring we planned multiple trips here and there that have been sitting on the calendar for months: Freddie and Nicole's house in June, Hilary's wedding in July, Gettysburg with my parents and a business trip to Canada in August. Now, we'll be home for some time before heading out for more trips around the holidays. We are now the opposite of the people we are in February. In February we can't wait to get out and travel; now we can't wait to stay near home.

With the breaking of the heat (for the most part) and the last of the summer trips, a gentle calm is beginning to settle in to the Anderson household. We are excited about all the Fall activities that lie just around the corner, and we will relish the apple pickings, bonfires, cool evenings, and fall colors with great enthusiasm. But it will be a calm enthusiasm. The frenzy of spring and summer is slowly starting to pass away as we move towards a true "fullness" in nature.

There are many lessons for men during this time of year. A lot about calming down, finding peace, settling into the day to day routine and reflecting on the higher things. I won't say anything about these, though, because I strum these chords quite frequently on this blog (and I'm sure I'll have more to say as we actually move in to Fall). Rather, I'd wish to leave you with this description of Fall by the author Hilaire Belloc. Of course, we're not quite yet to the time he describes, but I simply wish to bring to everybody's mind where this great cooling down is headed:

"The scent of life is never fuller in the woods than now, for the ground is yielding up its memories. The spring when it comes will not restore this fullness, nor these deep and ample recollections of the earth. For the earth seems now to remember the drive of the ploughshare and its harrying; the seed, and the full bursting of it, the swelling and the completion of the harvest. Up to the edge of the woods throughout the weald the earth has borne fruit; the barns are full, and the wheat is standing stacked in the fields, and there are orchards all around. It is upon such a mood of parentage and of fruition that the dead leaves fall."