“I’m here to stand up for Autumn!”
That was my declaration at the beginning of my winning Table Topics Speech in Toastmasters one week.
First, a little background: Toastmasters is a world-wide program for learning how to do public speaking. And I did. Before I joined the in-house club at the college I was working at, I seized up whenever I had to even introduce myself in job-related meetings. Eventually I got tired of that feeling, and decided to confront my fears head-on. I’m a great believer in not limiting myself.
Club meetings feature several opportunities to practice, from chairing a meeting to helping run different parts to delivering a full speech. But Table Topics, those two-minute off-the-cuff little speeches designed to get us to think on our feet, were always the bane of my existence. They just did not sit well in my wheelhouse. But I did develop the ability to NOT freeze on the spot.
This particular day, the topic was to talk about our favourite season, and why we love it. Most people chose Summer, a couple either Spring or Winter, but no one had picked Autumn.
I know – shocker for anyone who’s feeling like they can finally breathe again, in the cooler air, slowly descending leaves, harvest festivals, PSLs and lots of other good autumnal stuff.
I rarely – can’t even count the number of times on one hand – ever won Table Topics during the seven years I was in Toastmasters, but I did that day. I guess my passion for Autumn, which officially begins today, shone through.
People who don’t love this season usually cite that it portends Winter in a few months, and that’s a fair point. BUT, for me the beauty and magic of Autumn far outweigh what comes after.
The featured image for this post isn’t a painting, but it could be.
It’s a casual photo I took up in Agawa Canyon last fall, hiking around while the train was stopped. Nothing fancy, but its mellowness epitomizes Autumn for me – the soft golds and greens, the gently cooling weather, the slowing down to appreciate how lovely the days are. I love the scent of leaves – as they lose their chlorophyll, they seem to concentrate the aroma of nature. I love to crunch the fallen leaves under my feet – it’s a low-tech pleasure I haven’t lost since childhood.
Autumn encourages us to be outdoors.
Some people may say that about summer, but where I live the summers are brutal, just a string of hot, sweaty days that seems endless, even though every year I know it will ease in a couple of months. I put a foil sun shield across my car’s windshield for the duration so that I’m not roasting when I get in. And thank God for air conditioning, but nothing beats the smell of fresh air coming in through open windows when the temperatures drop.
And there are harvests, and festivals. Autumn is a season of bounty. Bushels of tomatoes, peppers, apples, pears, pumpkins… All that goodness is a deep connection to the planet, the soil, the wind, the rain, the sunlight, the pollinators. I think people who live in cities often forget how important those all are, forget where the food comes from, and while I have what might best be called a ‘withering’ thumb when it comes to gardening, I’m so fortunate to live in an area surrounded by farms and markets, and a sprinkling of harvest festivals to boot.
Thanksgiving is one of my favourite holidays, where I get to cook with all that bounty and share it with family and friends. There are few finer meals than roast (or even better, smoked) turkey with stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes and all the sides. Our godson makes a fantastic smoked turkey, and the gravy is unbelievable! And there must be pumpkin pie, with real whipped cream – not artificial, not out of a can.
The grand treat at the end of October, of course, is Halloween! My hubby and I grew up when kids could go out trick-or-treating without supervision, and that made all the difference. The cool October night, just the light of a few jack-o-lanterns on porches to grin out of the darkness, with the smell of fallen leaves and ripening grapes (a lot of people grew them in their back yards then), was both eerie and magical.
I was in a Canadian Tire store the other day with several of the gigantic creepy figures that are so popular now, and they are fun to look at, but for me what kids are missing is the mystique of Halloween. Now it’s all giant leering skeletons, inflatable hearses and extreme light displays.
The best part of the holiday for me was the edginess of being out after dark on my own (well, with friends), and I permeate every book I write with that same feeling.
Ultimately, I may or may not have convinced you about Autumn, and to some of you I’m surely preaching to the choir. There are those of us who long for this season all year, and we’ve come back to life now (after months of heat-induced torpor). Maybe that’s the best argument of all.