Thoughts Amidst The Sniffles (I have a cold)

The summer wanes, and the first hints of Fall begin to settle in over my particular region of Ohio. You ever notice that you can smell a season change? One day you wake up and it just doesn't smell like summer anymore. It's in the air, coming from that factory from which God makes seasons, but only four per year.

Well one morning this past week I woke up and stepped outside and fall was in the air. The sun was still bright, the sky was clear, but you can just tell. Though it is only September, we had a very mild summer, and thus I expected an early fall. The past three days have been cooler, and it has officially become the kind of weather in which you can wear a hoodie AND shorts and be perfectly comfortable. It is my favorite kind of weather. No surprise, for a was born in October, and thus am an autumn person, in many ways.

You see, fall is an in-between season, a time of change, a saying of goodbyes and a waving of hellos, and a settling into the long winter ahead. It is somewhat melancholy, yet bright and clear and crisp and refreshing and beautiful. Those of you who know me, know this is analogous to my personality. But more than that, it seems to be a metaphor for this particular stage in the life of yours truly.

I was reminded today at dinner with my parents and my recently married sister that I will be turning the grand age of twenty-five in just over a month. That number seems to me to be unreal. I am in my mid-twenties. I am halfway to fifty. This doesn't seem like it should be.

I recently purchases the latest release by Rise Against, a band that I am familiar with from the times in 315 where my roommate Jamie would play them. As I type I remember those days fondly. Which is perfect, because that's what this blog is about. Remembering.

The time has come for turning. Change is here and I seem to be in the in-between. Not in college but not in the routine of life just yet. I haven't found a permanent place, and I can't say that's a bad thing to me. And as fall is a somewhat wistful time, so this is a wistful period in my life, one where I long and yearn for the days past, days with my friends in Virginia.

And, again, as with autumn, I feel the approach of the winter of my life, one spent away from them, away from Virginia and all the goings-on there, away from the atmosphere of Campus Church and Liberty University, away from pursuing the things I want to learn. But that time is past.

I mentioned I purchased the Rise Against record, and on it is a song entitled "Audience of One." Some of the lyrics are as follows:

I brought down the sky for you
but all you did was shrug
You gave my emptiness a name
But you ranaway
Now all my friends gone
Maybe weve outgrown
all the things that we once loved

I won't try to explain exactly what those mean to me. It's something, like the coming of fall, that you just...know. It's in the air. Some people will look on your life and turn the other way, completely oblivious, or willingly careless. Some people will come alongside you. Some people will be held fondly in your memories forever.

But when the time comes for turning, it is a turning within, one that must be faced by yourself, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, either.

But it sure would be nice to have some company to take a walk through the falling leaves.

But God's factory at the edge of the world keeps cranking out those seasons, in weather and in life, and I guess this is me realizing that one season is coming to a close and another is beginning. And I'm melancholy, excited, a little nervous, confident, a bit lonely, a little sad, and mostly...content.

Basically, I'm everything I should be.

So, in the words of my friend, comrade, prayer minion, hallmate, fellow-member-of-the-golden-age-of-22-3, guitar hero god, magic card wizard, yankees fan and the former official voice of the Colonie, New York little league, Bill Monthie: "Alright. I've said what I needed to say. Now SCRAM."