As winter approaches...

Upon my walk this week, it became increasingly clear to me that I can no longer deny the approach of the fall season. As much as I try I can no longer ignore the leaves cascading from the trees or the breeze as it blows in a new type of atmosphere. This was the best summer we have had in so long and I am not ready to let it go just yet. The encroaching cold instills some sort of primal urge that makes me want to get ready to huddle in my home for the next few months, all the while waiting for the first rays of the spring sunshine to peek out from the grayness that lingers through the New England winters. I have never lived anywhere else, so it’s not that I am unaccustomed to the particular weather, I just feel like the season is so melancholy. The leaves fall from the trees, the rivers stop flowing (visibly that is), the animals go into hiding from the world, and people seem to hide themselves away as well. Winter is just a different feel, and fall tends to put it into my head that it is finally on its way.
I suppose this is why I was drawn to a quote on page 5 of the Sand County Almanac. Aldo Leopold describes following animal tracks through the snow and coming upon the scene where a rabbit has recently been devoured by an owl. Leopold states, “To this rabbit the thaw brought freedom from want, but also a reckless abandonment of fear. The owl has reminded him that thoughts of spring are no substitute for caution”. In the rabbit’s experience, he was too excited that there was one day of warmth that he forgot about all of the dangers that live beyond his tiny winter world. I feel that we often do this as well. Whether after a long rainy spell or during a cold snap during the winter, we see the sun shining one day and we have the urge to run out into the world with our short sleeve shirts and sandals. When the air finally gets a chance to hit us it shocks us with an unexpected blast of chilliness. Just like the rabbit, we are devoured by the air and are victims to our illusion of safety… in weather that is. We assume that sunshine means warm weather and we remove our layers of armor. Leopold, here, seems to caution us all to be aware of our surroundings and the true nature of Nature and realize that it is more predictable than we want to believe.  No matter how much we want to ignore it, New England winters are full of cold. Even though we have a few days of 50 degree weather, it will return to the full-on below zero temperature. If we rely on common sense, we can protect ourselves from the violent climate, or in the case of the rabbit, owls.