A Warm Comforter

I have to admit the move from summer into fall is affecting me. As the days begin to get shorter, and the nights longer, I find myself being pulled down, somehow, almost as if by gravity. I experience it every year about this time. I love the Autumn weather, the leaves falling from the trees, the squirrels scurrying about on the ground collecting acorns to store up for the winter, the new chill in the evening air, the smell of the first fires burning off in the valley. But it is a time of introspection, self-evaluation and fortification for me as well. A time to take personal inventory, much as one would assess whether or not he has enough wood for the winter, or enough canned goods in the pantry. It is a time to put some of the playful things away, some of the frivolous thinking even, to pull out the warm clothes, the wool hats, the heavy blankets, and the long historical novels. The animals are repairing and upgrading their dens, their nests, and their burrows, knowing that survival of the winter depends upon the diligence with which they tend to their preparation for it. We are very much the same. Winter is a time when depression sets in for many, a time when those who are alone feel even more alone, and a time when those confined indoors for days on end feel, quite intensely, the pulse of their existing relationships. Fall is a good time to fortify primary relationships, for husbands and wives to embrace, to reach a little deeper, to acknowledge the need for one another, to strengthen the bonds, the commitment, the connection. It is a time to be a warm comforter for the one you love as winter seeks to chill our proverbial bones.