I Fall, You Fall, We All Fall into Fall.

Jean Talon Market, Autumn 2010

These last couple of days have felt so fall-like. A few minutes ago walking along the sidewalk, me and all the others who just spilled out of the metro scurrying home, I noticed a sprinkling of gold leaves beneath my feet. When did this happen? Sure, the occasional tree top has turned to yellow or red, the burnished leaves slowly infiltrating the green below, but falling? Summer's flowers are still out, but now clusters of orange berries dot the low-lying bushes, the kind that hold fast and are subject to being covered by first snows come November. It's starting. to. change.

It's mild out now as I write this, but dark - so dark! The moon is lying full and low in the south-east sky and ringed by clouds. Last night I slept under my comforter and wasn't a bit too warm, today I grabbed a light leather jacket as I ran out the door. Yet my sundresses are still hanging from the bathroom door hook and the basket at the top of my stairs is still overflowing with flip-flops. I always know fall is coming, but why does it still seem to come upon us so fast? I am easily seduced by fresh days, crisp nights and the clash of orange and gold and red against a cornflower-blue sky. By pumpkins at the Atwater Market and bags of Halloween candy by the check-out, and yet, and yet...I have loved this summer. Watching sun-hatted toddlers bobbing in the pool, flipping through magazines or a pulpy book while I dry and then jump in again myself, kids ignoring the lifeguard's admonition not to run, sunlight revealing countless shades of green in the leaves overhead. The feel of a soft breeze on my shoulders and arms and back, windows cracked wide open day and night, and drifting off to sleep to the sounds of U2 performing a couple of miles away. Which was better, the concert the night before or this? How many times do you get to be serenaded to sleep by Bono?

All to say - and I say that a lot, don't I? - that I can't decide if I'm truly seduced by these early days of autumn, or if it's a kind of seasonal Stockholm Syndrome. It's here, it's cooler, it's darker - so go with it! Grab the long-sleeved sweater, snuggle under the down comforter. Seduced? Succumb? I just don't know. I haven't decided.