As I was enjoying the quiet morning of the Labor Day Holiday, I thought about the season ahead. Autumn is one of my favorite times of year—crisper air, the sun’s angle as it hits the leaves—a season of transition that reminds us of summer’s heat along with previews of winter’s sting in a perfect, surprising, sometimes nostalgic way.
Fall has always been tinged with some sadness, and perhaps that’s simply because we know that change is occurring…as humans we normally don’t embrace change. Although it’s the only real constant in life, we still tend to resist the inevitable that is change. Along with sadness, there also seems to be yearning in the air. Yearning for what was, rather than hope for what will be.
Yearning isn’t a commonly used term, but it is a common emotion I hear in the voices of others when they talk about their lives…it surrounds their words with such wistfulness…it goes far beyond hoping and wishing—even further than longing. It’s the deepest heart murmuring.
I tend to believe that yearning is endemic to our human condition—yearning for what we no longer have. I’ve also found it to be a visceral emotion; one we’re physically acquainted with… “the absence of” prompts the yearning. Perhaps it is summer’s reminder of our “old normal” of what our lives once were. And, perhaps through quiet reflection, we can successfully replicate in our lives what Autumn does each year, intersperse the “what was” with “what is to come”.
Sharon Clark
www.griefinterlude.com
