Winding Down

As promised to calendar holders. I am writing the story behind each month's calendar photo this year.

SEPTEMBER

September: it's back to school time. Not for me, but for the rest of the world, or so it feels. Things get really quiet pretty much overnight where I live come September.  Here in the Cold North, we begin to draw in, begin gradually to move from outside to inside--literally and figuratively.  Nature is winding down, too.  We can feel the retreat.  The climax of the growing season has definitely passed.  We're in the denouement, with the autumnal equinox fast approaching.    

"Summer is over."  That's what I thought when I saw my neighbos' cafe table and chairs "folded up" together on their lawn--spotlit theatrically no less--in the final glow of an autumn day's light.  "Party's over.  Time to get to work."  

That's what this time of the life cycle--this ebb, this slowing down--signals to me.  And the chairs all but spoke it, looking like actors on a stage whose show has finished.  They have served us well and they seem to know it.  Ready for a well-earned rest, they rest.  We gear up, and they rest.  Beholding them, I behold contented completion, a purpose fulfilled, cheerful service rewarded.  Day is done.  Curtain.