“It’s the first day of autumn! A time of hot chocolatey mornings, and toasty marshmallow evenings, and, best of all, leaping into leaves!” — Winnie the Pooh, Pooh’s Grand Adventure
It’s safe to say that we’re transitioning into fall, whether we like it or not. Some of you may be excited to put out your pumpkin decorations, switching summer greens to fall oranges and reds. Others of you may be clinging on to the last bit of Alaska summer. I had dinner at a friend’s house this week who made Aperol spritzes to go with our seafood boil for dinner. She said “We’re holding onto summer as long as we can!”
Despite feeling the cooler air and change of colors, transitions can be hard, whether seasonally or in life. While I enjoy wearing my hoodies and seeing the beauty of the sun hitting those yellow birch tree leaves, I grieve the loss of our summer nights, where the sun doesn’t go down and life is growing all around us. I find myself anxious when I know that winter is coming — even though there’s lots that I love about winter.
But something in the transition is always a little unsettling for me. It’s this middle zone of not being one thing fully, but a blend of frosty mornings and sunny afternoons. It’s both the yellows and reds and yet the greens that remain. It’s time to rest of after a summer of playing and yet anxious anticipation of the dark and cold. It is simultaneously everything and nothing at once.
Instead of fighting it, though, I try to allow myself to exist in the in-between — to be OK with some days feeling good and magical and other days feeling gross and confusing. Find the thing that brings you joy year-round and experience in a variety of settings. It helps make the transitions easier, since it feels like a constant when everything else is chaos.
No matter what kind of day it is, I think we can end each day with a s’more. They’re summer food, fall food, winter food, and even spring food. If there’s fire and a mallow, you can get it to be the perfect golden brown, surrounded by melty chocolate and graham. What’s not to love about that?
Pastor Meredith Harber ministers at Christ Lutheran Church, 128 N. Soldotna Ave., Soldotna. Worship at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.
