Changing Seasons—Summer to Fall: The Struggle I Undergo Each Year

I am sitting in the grass and pine straw in the sun beneath a pine tree in the disc-golf field between the BAC and the US-45 Bypass, between the Lifeway Christian Stores building and the woods near the soccer fields. It is a beautiful Sunday afternoon, four o’clock to be precise. Blue sky (Carolina blue to be exact, even though if Dad were here he’d ridiculously argue that it’s Duke blue) without a cloud to be seen. I can just see one clock face of the belltower, and the jutting lightning rod shooting into the sky like the pointed tip of a bayonet. The grass is still green, although on my walk over here I tread upon several blades that were beginning to turn brown. An American flag in vivid color is fluttering its red and white stripes in the winds, its blue square full of starts partially wrapped around its pole by the chapel. I can just see the night-spotlights of the baseball field above the treetops. Although the sun is still quite warm on my skin, Fall is in the air—that crisp smell that hints of frost soon to come. When I walked by the fountain earlier today, I caught myself looking for the changing color of the leaves. Indeed, in ove of the red maples by the fountain circle I spotted one lone cherry-red leaf amidst the sea of green. I couldn’t help myself—I had to pause and take a picture with my phone. The air feels clean and the sun less harsh, yet I have mixed feelings about the return of the Fall. I dearly love the summer, and I hate to see it go, yet there is a sort of expectancy about the changing of the season that I relish. A hope of things to come. A nearing to a finish line. Of death so that there can be rebirth. I knew the summer must come to an end, but somehow I’m never prepared to let it go. I’m never quite ready to hide my skin under layers of fabric, to dread setting foot outdoors into the chill air, to switch the thermostat to heat from cool. I love the outdoors, the sun on my skin, I hate the cold and would much rather seat. To me, this changing of the seasons brings holiday celebrations of family and giving and love. Such a struggle I have with the passing of the summ