An Autumn Morning Moment

 

With the official start of Autumn the weather changed as if on queue. Suddenly, the days are shorter, colder, and rainier - the sun does not arc as high, leaving even mid-day shadows stretched before us.


Fall has come and in the grit of this city there are signs of the coming winter that cannot be ignored. In our early weekday morning, those of us who shuffle to meet the downtown streetcar are mingled with the remaining night time underworld dwellers. We are all stopped and our faces turned to the sky. All of us held frozen in a shared moment to follow the fast flight and call of low flying geese.

There is something unearthly, eerie, and primal in their haunting call, and we cannot help but feel the sudden urge that we must now prepare for the winter that will come. We all feel the shared stirring - our signal to hurry and to slow down. The message to take advantage of what warmth and light we have now must be used to full advantage, for it will not last..

A moment we have all stopped but with their passing so passes the memory of this shared experience. As the honking fades we all turn back to our private drudgery - each to our own little worlds.

And I wait for the bright lights of the coming streetcar.