by Jacqueline Dodd

Created on: October 24, 2009

Fall is without a doubt my favourite season of the year and it has been for as long as I can remember. Every year toward the end of August to the beginning of September I look forward to the first day that I have to pull my autumn coat out of the closet. There is nothing more exciting to me than to step outside early in the morning and feel the chill in the air for the first time.

There are several reasons why I love the season so much, beginning with the smell & feel of the air. Autumn air is so cool, fresh & crisp. There is nothing better than breathing in that fall smell either, that mixture of dried, fallen leaves and the hint of not yet fallen snow. I remember being a kid and feeling so excited about seeing my breath in the air when I would exhale, like a plume of cigarette smoke. Visually, autumn is the most appealing and pleasing season of them all to me. Seeing the trees gradually change from green to vibrant red, yellow and orange is incredible. Fall is my favourite season to take a walk through the woods. Looking around and seeing these bold, rich colours on all sides of me is amazing. It's almost as if the forest is on fire. Nothing is better than taking in the flaming, bright colours & hearing the crunch of fallen leaves underneath my boots.

Autumn is a time for family to me as well and with Thanksgiving falling in October in Canada, it's a time to take a moment or two to count my blessings and be grateful for the things that I often take for granted. Fall is a time for family gatherings, storytelling around the table and eating big turkey dinners and pumpkin pie with people I love. It's a time to go for long walks and take in the beauty that is all around us, as opposed to hustling along, staring at the sidewalk. It's a time to curl up on the couch in a warm sweater, watching horror movie marathons on cable and eating Halloween candy. It's a time to dress up in outrageous costumes without worrying what anybody else may be thinking. It's a time be someone else for awhile, even if it's only for a night. It's peacoats and warm toques, windblown hair and rosy cheeks. It's having a hot cup of coffee, reading a good book on the couch with the heater on, listening to the wind howling outside the window.

Even though all of those things are wonderful and large parts of the reason I am so in love with this time of year, the thing I might like the best about autumn is the way that things seem to start winding down. In the summer everyone is constantly out and about, trying to make the most of the hot weather. In winter we all start getting ready for the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season. We pack ourselves into shopping malls, pushing and shoving, rushing and panicking to meet that December twenty-fifth deadline. Fall is perfectly in between. The weather starts to cool down, the rain starts to fall and it seems as though everyone goes into hibernation for a couple of months. Fall gives us an excuse to slow down, to just stay in for once and relax in the warmth of our homes. The holiday season is still far enough away in autumn that nobody seems to be in any particular rush to finish this, go there or get that.

It always seems to me that fall is the shortest, most fleeting season of them all. It's almost one of those blink and you'll miss it type of things, which just makes me appreciate it even more. I do everything possible to enjoy autumn while it lasts. I wind down and relax in the fall. I take the time to not only look but to really see what's around me and there's nothing in the world that's better to me than that.

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