(If you’re a long-time reader here at Folkpotpourri.com, at this time of year you undoubtedly expect this, so without further ado…)
From somewhere down the one path come voices scarce to discern at first, then growing to clamor; from the other naught but silence, mist, and enveloping dark. Choose I must, but having only this moment arrived and come to understand this sudden and seminal path now demanding a choice at it’s bifurcation, each into destinations at odds with the other, I am confronted with invitations to follow one. Do I opt for a roiling avenue toward some familiar end whence I’m bidden to follow a tumultuous riot of temptation and merriment amid throngs of fellow travelers, or the serene, shady lane of nature’s offerings whence cool autumn peace and misty colors wind into a silent yet eerily boding woodland alone. A serene invitation of evening darkness and a bracing north wind make the choice for me. Yea, and the moss-covered hickory with gilded foliage of indescribable resplendence makes the choice for me.
As I proceed beyond the moment of my option, I’m at once greeted by a blush of deep-scarlet sumac abruptly thrust from the dark autumn mist offering its own feast of visual delight upon this table of an autumnal banquet. Ere I’m able to partake of a morsel comes to view a palette of green and heavy moss upon a weathered escarpment of limestone, impeccably strewn with ornate burgundy gum and pumpkin-colored sassafras discards. My eyes deliberately and eagerly trace a vine of crimson woodland ivy high into a stalwart red oak whose slowly changing hue of verdant summer proudly displays his early fall decor.
Far from regret at this choice of roads, and thus further from the din of a crowded city of men, I’m left in amaze of an autumn world of which few partake, a world of wild songbirds eagerly gleaning seeds from generous ocher grasses who sway in desiccated undulation as the northern breeze wafts first down wooded hillside then into an amber ocean of this silently awaiting evening dark, a world of hastily-gathered drops of yesterday’s rain gently meandering through burgeoning turves of earthen form. This choice of roads lead among exuberant tumbles of maple and black gum whose autumnal gowns beckon great envy of other woodland members who choose to await the onset of colder winds to alter their attire, which will of certainty be no less extravagant once they determine to do so. Indeed, where such beauty and magnificence abound, there is no time nor inclination to regret this path.
Among the browning jungles of the fen with her ripe throughout tule, rush, and cattail, jewelweed blossoms fall to bespeckle tiny sunsets among the briars – summer frogs have grown silent, the only noise to be heard here are the thumps of ripe walnuts escaping from lemon-yellow branches who race one another to shed plump burdens. Gently seeping clear waters from the spring ply this peaceful mire, slowly disappearing beneath discarded foliage of waning summer. Indeed, autumn seems in haste to conceal every vestige of summer – it is her season now and she harbors no inclination to share attention of her magnificence, her color, her silent arrest of nature.
Gold is in abundance here and is not to be confused with the lesser gold of value to men. Crimson also abides in increase as the trail progresses through the somber, wooded hills. Ebony flocks of complaining crows now flit listless and great columns of white geese sail aloft in rare open patches of a melancholy blue firmament, seen but by the keenest of eyes, but irascible honking of their clan heard plainly by all. Winding brakes of clearest cold streams carry golden leaf-drops away to drift on the sea or to rest alongside some lonely fallen sentinel of the forest as it floats to an unknown edifice. Soon, tendrils of winter cold will send ice to immobilize all who dwell on this exquisite water.
Until those grim and stolid warriors without leaf upon steeds ever alight on winter wind approach to take it all away, take the road less traveled – get out and enjoy the fall!
May the blessings of the Almighty Father find and keep us.
MK