Find the beauty in the fall season

We have arrived in mid-September. The unbearable 100-degree-plus summer days have ended and changed to more tolerable 80-degrees-and-below temperatures that are quickly becoming the norm.

While this change of weather, notably all-day cloudy skies with more frequent rain, is welcome for the last couple of weeks of the summer season, it won’t be long before the sense of melancholy settles in that is associated with autumn.

Dead leaves become scattered everywhere, leaving the trees looking like twigs stuck in the ground, and the constant sound of people coughing doesn’t really help to brighten the mood. However, you can’t let melancholy control you during the fall, as it does nothing but put a damper on yourself, which is not only reflected in your work, but on others around you.

Some optimistic thoughts for this time of the year are all of the fun you can have that other seasons don’t permit. For instance, you can’t really wear darker colored clothes during the summer, because it absorbs the heat. Fall fashions are the chance to wear more attractive hats, coats, and gloves before the winter season hits, where it’s more about keeping warm than it is to show off.

The same goes for enjoying hot foods and drinks, whether it’s something simple like a cup of tea or something that requires more than a microwave, like baking an apple pie. Movie theater popcorn is a lot more enjoyable to me during this time, because the warmth fits right into the season.

If you watch a lot of television, you’ll be glad to hear that new episodes of your favorite TV shows will begin to air at about this time.

If you’re someone who prefers to read, write or paint to spend your leisure time, then this season is right for you. You can choose from lots of fall colors. Just because the content is usually darker than something inspired by the spring or summer, it doesn’t mean that there is no sense of beauty in it.

Although it’s easy to fall into a sense of bitter melancholy during this upcoming fall season, it’s just as easy to embrace it for what it is and make beauty out of something as fantastic as autumn.